If you ask a group of my friends to describe me using a handful of words, you will probably get a variety of answers, some of which I am proud of, and some others not fit for print (all in good humor though). One description that would probably come up a few times, of which I am generally proud of, is the word frugal. Frugal means to be economical with regards to money, or as I like to say “thrifty”. Growing up on a small beef and hay operation in the foothills of Appalachia, we didn’t have much of a choice other than to be thrifty when it came to farming. Still to this day the only new piece of farm equipment my father has ever owned was a four-basket hay tedder that he purchased some 15 years ago. In our farming operation low cost and efficiency was the name of the game, especially when it came to raising forage. The goal was to maximize quality and yield at low costs.
As you head into this growing season, I hope you are also thinking about what you can do to improve your costs of production and efficiency. Given the tough market situations, those improvements may mean cutting some unnecessary expenses to become more profitable. Discussions about the success of a farm is most often expressed in bushels per acre, hundred weight of milk, or tons per acre. There is a sense of competitiveness that comes with trying to beat your neighbors in yield, but the focus should be on maximizing profit for your farm. It would be nice to average 250 bushel corn, but what would your fertilizer bill look like to achieve it?
We in Extension talk about soil testing over and over again for good reason- you cannot manage what you do not measure! Fertilizer calculators are available to help you determine how much nitrogen and phosphorus to apply to maximize your profits. For nitrogen, Ohio State University and other Midwestern states provide data to the Iowa State calculator found here: http://cnrc.agron.iastate.edu. This calculator uses the price you expect to be paid for your corn and the price you are paying for nitrogen to calculate the best amount of nitrogen to apply to maximize your profit, without going overboard and wasting time or money with excessive nitrogen application.
How many of you currently calculate your nitrogen use efficiency (NUE)? Fertilizer is just one way that you may be able to cut back on expenses, but seed, seed treatments, and pest programs should all be given a second look. If you are trying to kill marestail with glyphosate for the third year in a row without success, you probably ought to consider alterations to your weed control program. The same can be said for prepaying for many fungicides and insecticides, two factors that are very weather dependent, and can be managed by proper crop scouting during the growing season. If you have questions about how or where to cut back, give me a call and I can help you with those decisions.
I’ll end this week with a quote from comedian Steve Martin, “I’ve got to keep breathing. It’ll be my worst business mistake if I don’t.” Here’s to a profitable 2018 growing season, stay thrifty my friends!