Mid-County Agronomy
Yield goals and long-term fertility sustainability
Joe Forner - Agronomist
When I started as agronomist back
in 1999, I would be sitting down
with a farmer and planning the
next year’s fertilizer needs, and we
were typically using yield goals of
150 bushels/acre. If we felt that the
piece of ground was exceptional,
we would push it all the way to 160
bushels/acre. Eleven years later,
these yields would be close to a
crop failure on some of the better
ground in Carver County.
So what is a yield goal, and how
much fertilizer do you need to ap-
ply for the year 2011? Before I an-
swer that question, there are a
couple of prereq