Profitable Use of Site-Specific Nutrient Management Technologies.

The goal of site-specific nutrient management is to apply the appropriate rate of fertilizer to different parts of a farm field to increase yield and/or decrease fertilizer costs. It is not guaranteed that either of these goals will be met with a specific application if 1) the sampling or sensing method used to develop the recommendation was flawed 2) the recommendation foundation was flawed 3) The application tool used to deliver the fertilizer is not of the same scale as the recommendation map. If, however, the sampling/sensing method is conducted at the proper scale to reveal fertility patterns in a similar scale as application delivery, the nutrient variability is in a range where rate changes will increase yield or reduce fertilizer costs, and the recommendation formulas on which the rate is based has been developed locally with site-specific nutrient application in mind, then an economic benefit will often result from the effort. Examples will be provided of unsuccessful site-specific campaigns and successful utilization of site-specific nutrient management tools.