When fertiliser prices rise, cutting rates without a plan can put production at risk. Soil-health specialists Jay Fuhrer and Darrell Oswald describe a different route: improve the soil’s capacity to hold and cycle nutrients, then use measurements to determine where purchased inputs can be reduced.
Five principles working together
The framework keeps soil armoured with plants or residue, minimises physical and chemical disturbance, increases plant diversity, maintains living roots and integrates livestock where suitable. These practices can protect aggregates, reduce erosion and support the biological processes that release and retain nutrients.
Cover crops can contribute to several principles at once. They capture nutrients after harvest, feed soil organisms and provide grazing. At Menoken Farm in North Dakota, wider corn rows are among the methods being explored to give interseeded covers more of the growing season, with crop and cover rows rotated later to use the resulting benefits.
Profit matters more than a single yield figure
Fuhrer emphasises that farm profit is more important than maximising yield without regard to cost. A system that maintains production while reducing fertiliser, fuel or feed exposure can improve margin and resilience. The calculation must still include cover-crop seed, establishment, management and any effect on the cash crop.
Oswald also cautions that covers do not eliminate the need for fertiliser on their own. Species and timing should address a defined resource concern, and nutrient-rate changes need soil or tissue tests and field comparisons. The opportunity comes from combining practices so captured nutrients remain available to a growing crop rather than being lost to wind or water.