November 21, 2024

Well it looks like winter has decided to join the party!

Not that we should be surprised to see the snow on the ground, we had plenty of warning and a late start to winter, it is still slightly unpleasant to see. 

We apologize for the lack of newsletter last week.  As they say, you can't rush perfection? ... or something like that.  Anyways, enjoy all of this weeks newsletter on P Residual! 

Have a great rest of your week, stay safe, stay warm!

The Antara Team

This Week @ Antara:

Phosphate Residuals: A Closer Look

In our last update, we we noted that phosphate residual averages were pretty even across the board this fall —except for soybeans. We saw a drop of 2.5 ppm (about 5 lbs). While it isn't much it still raised some questions.

The main question that was raised is whether this is something we notice repeatedly year over year. Is it because soybeans pull higher than normal amounts of phosphate from the soil? Or is it because farmers sometimes choose to forgo applying phosphate ahead of soybeans because they don't typically respond to applied fertilizer. First off lets look at an updated data set representing 500+ fields sampled this fall.

By changing the chart format to box plots we can glean some additional information.

For those not familiar with box plot charts, In the above table, the X marks the mean or average. The orange boxes show the spread of the middle 50% of fields. The whisker lines above and below represent the top and bottom quartile(25%). 

Looking at this data set you will notice that our residual phosphate levels typically range between 5 and 15 ppm.  You will also notice that there are a lot of fields testing 20+ ppm.  The most common reason for this is a history of manure.

Another scenario where we tend to see test levels above 15ppm is where soil tests lower in pH. There are areas of the Red River Valley with soil pH levels in the high 6's / low 7's. This pH range is where phosphate levels are most available. Most soils in the Red River Valley are calcareous with pH levels testing closer to 8. It doesn't mean that phosphate levels are lower.  It's more likely that they are just tied up and they don't show up on the soil test.  

Getting back to the data, you can see that soybean ground is still testing lower than the other 3 crops and it also has the tightest range of levels. The most obvious question we should start with is whether this is a pattern that we see year over year? Lets take a quick look at the previous 2 years. 

We can see that this pattern does not repeat itself from year to year. In fact it seems to change crops from one year to the next. Does this mean it follows a typical 3-4 year rotation? Maybe...! One thing to keep in mind is that,  this dataset may change from year to year depending on the list of fields we are testing as our business grows and/or farmland changes hands. 

To get a clearer pictures we would have to pare the list so we are only comparing fields that were tested in all 3 years. Perhaps this is something we will tackle later this winter as we analyze our Benchmarking Data!

NEW VIDEO!

Battling the Pressure of Flea Beetles on early Volunteer Canola. Watch to see see the pattern we noticed this season. 

Antara Agronomy Services wins 2nd Place in the Innovation Showcase at Manitoba AgDays!

We will see you there again this January 21-23,2025. Barn 4, Booth 1839.

Check out our EVENTS page!

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