News

Late harvest partly behind regional anhydrous shortages

An agronomist says last fall’s late harvest is partly to blame for the regional shortages of anhydrous ammonia. Joel Steiber with Corteva AgriScience tells Brownfield, “I’ve got a couple of friends that farm in Iowa and they are (experiencing shortages) and the main reason that they are is that there wasn’t a lot of fall anhydrous put on in Illinois and Iowa.”

He says farmers were lined up over the weekend in Illinois and in Iowa trying to get anhydrous ammonia but says he’s seeing fewer problems in Wisconsin because of a change in managing nitrogen. “In most of the trade area that I work, most of the growers have gone away from anhydrous, mainly for safety and mainly because we do a lot of side-dress nitrogen where we’re coming back with either 28% or 32%. It’s just a lot easier to apply that in a liquid form.”

Steiber
says one drawback for using anhydrous is the need to let it settle into the
soil for about 7 days before planting to avoid anhydrous burn on the roots of
corn seedlings. 

He says the slightly longer growing season in Iowa and Illinois makes waiting okay but becomes a concern the further north you go. “Growers have found that if they’re getting the 28-32 side-dressed into the soils and they’re applying it later in the season, it’s an investment that’s worth making and managing for top-end yields.”

Wisconsin
farmers are just beginning to get into the fields after a cool and wet spring.