The importance of mineral fertilisers in agriculture cannot be understated. Some sources estimate that mineral fertilisers have contributed to at least a 50% increase in crop yields during the 20th century. One U.S. survey concluded that without nitrogen fertiliser, corn yields would decrease by 40%. Applying the right amount of fertiliser to the right place is crucial for maintaining soil health and ensuring sustainable, consistent agricultural productivity: ultimately protecting your bottom line. Both over and under-applying fertilisers can have significant negative impacts on soil quality, crop yield, and the environment. In this blog, we take a look at the effects of improper fertiliser application and how you can avoid under and over-applying fertiliser by ensuring the right amount is applied to the right place on the field.
Over-Application of Fertilisers
Over-applying fertilisers can lead to several detrimental effects:
- Nutrient imbalance: Excessive application of certain nutrients can cause imbalances, making other nutrients less available. For example, high levels of phosphorus can inhibit the uptake of zinc and iron, leading to deficiencies.
- Nutrient leaching and runoff: Excess nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, can leach into groundwater or run off into nearby water bodies, wasting your resources, and causing water pollution and eutrophication. This not only affects water quality but also leads to the loss of valuable nutrients from the soil. The European Green Deal seeks to reduce nutrient losses from both organic and mineral fertilisers by at least 50% by 2030.
- Soil acidification: Continuous over-application of nitrogen-based fertilisers can lower soil pH, leading to soil acidification. This can harm beneficial soil microorganisms and reduce the availability of essential nutrients to plants, reducing the overall yield.
- Impact on soil microbiome: Local over-fertilisation can disrupt the soil microbiome, reducing microbial diversity and activity. This can impair soil structure, nutrient cycling, and overall soil health.
Under-Application of Fertilisers
Under-applying fertilisers also poses risks:
- Nutrient deficiencies: Insufficient fertiliser application can lead to nutrient deficiencies, stunting plant growth and reducing crop yields.
- Soil depletion: Continuous cropping without adequate nutrient replenishment depletes soil nutrient reserves, leading to long-term soil degradation and reduced fertility.
Benefits of Balanced Fertiliser Application
- Optimal crop yields: Applying the right amount of fertiliser to the right place across the whole field ensures that crops receive the necessary nutrients for optimal growth resulting in overall higher yields.
- Improved soil health: Balanced fertilisation supports a healthy soil microbiome, enhances soil structure, promotes nutrient cycling, and supports carbon sequestration.
- Sustainable agriculture: Maintaining soil health through appropriate fertiliser application ensures long-term agricultural sustainability and the productivity of your farm.
Ways to improve the accuracy and conformity of fertiliser application
Ensuring accurate and even fertiliser application across the entire field benefits your yield. Precision application and even distribution are two ways to ensure the right amount of fertiliser is delivered to the right place.
- Precision application: Through undertaking soil sampling you can gain an understanding of where your soils require more or less nutrients. This information can then be used to create detailed prescription maps to deliver the right amount of product to the right place. One Valtra customer, smart farming contractor Christel Thijssen, uses just such a method to create detailed prescription maps for the farms he works with. He then uses Valtra Variable Rate Control and Section Control to ensure the right amount of fertiliser is delivered to the right place on the field. This is then followed by drone and satellite monitoring to follow how the crop is growing during the growing season. He estimates that by using this precision method it is possible to reduce fertiliser and plant protection use by as much as 70-90%.
- Improved fertiliser application accuracy: Weight change during fertiliser spreading can result in a change in angle of 3 degrees throughout the application process. This results in the spreader being correctly calibrated for only around 20% of the field, leading to inconsistent fertiliser application. Areas of over-application can result in lodging where cereals are displaced from their normal upright growing position and lean over or lie on the ground. A 2% increase in lodging can result in a 35% decrease in yield in these areas.
A 2% increase in lodging can result in a 35% decrease in yield.
Valtra Unlimited Smart Top Link improves fertiliser application accuracy.
The Valtra Unlimited Smart Top Link adjusts the top link in real-time to ensure a more consistent spread of fertiliser throughout the entire field. Research undertaken on a farm in Denmark demonstrated that this reduced the negative impacts by an equivalent of €15 per hectare. Valtra Smart Top Link is available for new Valtra N and T Series tractors from Valtra Unlimited.
Reduce the negative impacts by an equivalent of €15 per hectare.
