149-1 Using Soil Tests to Make Fertilizer Recommendations: A Historical Perspective.



Monday, October 17, 2011: 1:05 PM
Henry Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 214C, Concourse Level

David Mengel, Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Soil tests have been used to make fertilizer recommendations for nearly a century.  During this period the soil testing and fertilization process has changed substantially, as has the fertilizers available, methods of fertilizers application used and some of our expectations from fertilizer use.  However one thing that has remained constant throughout that time period has been the overall objective of agronomists to provide fertilizer recommendations which give the highest economic returns to farmers fertilizer investment.  Some of the concepts covered in this paper will be the development of soil test correlation and calibration concepts, the nutrient sufficiency and build and maintain recommendation systems and some thoughts on why regional differences in the fertilizer recommendation  process occurred.
See more from this Division: S08 Nutrient Management & Soil & Plant Analysis
See more from this Session: Symposium--Development of Soil-Test Based Recommendations: Historical Perspectives, Current Issues and Future Directions