Precision Ag: Know What You Need

Headache on the horizon

            Another reason precision-ag technology will need to increase in the years ahead is the EPA’s call for a 45% reduction in the nitrogen delivered annually to the Gulf by 2015.

            To accomplish this we’ll need to do the things I mentioned in my April 2011 column, where the Fertilizer Institute along with the International Fertilizer Association, the International Plant Nutrient Institute and the Canadian Fertilizer Institute have provided leadership to help farmers manage this minefield. They’ve developed the 4R nutrient stewardship program; right fertilizer source, at the right rate, right time and in the right place.

If we accomplished this, we would meet the EPA standards by 2015 and improve bottom-line profits.