Improve Fertiliser Placement With Strip-tillage – And Maximise Yield

According to Michael Petersen, lead agronomist at US-based Orthman Manufacturing, the main pillars of success for strip-tillage are vertical tillage, residue management, seedbed preparation and fertiliser placement. Stehan Cloete explains the technical aspects of these factors.

Many years of research by world-leading precision strip-till agriculture machinery manufacturer Orthman has delivered strong evidence to suggest that broadcasting of dry, granular fertiliser, specifically phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) products, does not deliver optimal results. In fact, according to the company, broadcasting these products is little different to tossing money into the wind.

Michael Petersen, the lead agronomist at Orthman, is a soil scientist with 45 years’ experience in the field and has worked in several parts of South Africa and in 10 other countries. He has seen, measured and rode on combine harvesters to monitor the results of placing dry fertiliser products precisely in the pathway of the crop’s root system.

The results, he says, are certainly worth the expense of obtaining the distribution equipment and metering system for pre-planting tillage and fertilisation.

HIGH COST OF FERTILISER
It is unlikely that fertiliser prices will decline in the future. In fact, the supply worldwide seems to be dwindling fast. This is at a time when agricultural production is increasing both in area and intensity. In other words, the demand for fertiliser will only rise, most likely resulting in further price increases.

Between 95% and 98% of the nutritional requirement for a plant to survive, grow and reproduce is collected by the roots. For many years, soil scientists and agronomists have known that P and K do not translocate much in the soil medium. Phosphorus, for example, moves only 20mm to 40mm from where it is placed.