Maria Abbott, product development specialist and agronomist for CHS Crop Nutrients, left, and Paul Trcka, precision agriculture manager at CHS in Grand Meadow, Minn., examine the eff ects of applying starter fertilizer at planting. > near Loudonville, Ohio, and Pendleton and Rochester, Ind. She and Eastern Region Account Manager Ed Hopkins conducted visual field inspections, determined growth stages and made qualitative comparisons among starter treatments. “Regardless of planting date and growth stage, plants treated with XLR-rate were taller and had thicker stalks and bigger leaves,” she says. “Plants at the V5 and V6 stages had a healthier, stronger appearance, which translated to a more abundant root system compared to plants that had received no starter application. Healthier plants are better able to handle adverse conditions.” Potential Yield Impact Those growth advantages can translate to bigger yields and faster fall drydown, says Abbott. “But that often depends on the growing conditions,” she says. “We tend to see the biggest benefi ts from starters in cold, wet springs, during early or late planting, when soil phosphorus levels are low, or when plants suff er from signifi cant stress such as heat or drought.” Tolk points to the extreme spring conditions last year in eastern South Dakota as most likely the reason for the consistent yield bumps he observed on plots that had starter fertilizer. “In side-by-side trials on the cooperative’s 9-acre corn test plot, we compared use of 10-34-0 starter fertilizer, XLR-rate 7-23-5 and no starter, all with and without a micronutrient package. Both starters produced signifi cantly higher yields — yields that would increase grower profi ts. “On the side of the plot where soils were not as good, the XLR-rate rows outperformed the 10-34-0 rows by 5.2 bushels per acre,” says Tolk. “That was probably because the 10-34-0 wasn’t broken down in the soil and available to plants as quickly as XLR-rate was. That’s a major advantage of the orthophosphates in XLR-rate.” Applying a micronutrient package with XLR-rate produced an extra 15 bushels per acre. Tolk mixes his own micronutrient blend that includes chelated copper, iron, manganese and zinc. XLR-rate formulations are available with optional micronutrient packs (MNP). The take-home results, Tolk says, are that starter fertilizers pay, and micronutrients, especially zinc, are a worthwhile addition. “I tell growers that zinc and phosphorus go hand in hand, and adding zinc to a starter is mandatory in my book,” says Tolk. “Phosphorus ties up zinc, so more is needed to make sure it’s available to the plant. In every trial where zinc was added, we saw a yield bump.” Benefi ts for Other Crops Howard Farmers Co-op test plots also included starter fertilizer trials with soybeans and the results were generally positive, says Tolk. “Due to some crop damage mid-season, we lost one of our replications, so I’m less confi dent in last season’s data. But we’ll be including soybeans in our starter trials again this coming season.” Research at North Dakota State University in 2014 showed promising results when giving sugar beets extra nutrients at planting. Preliminary data showed the use of XLR-rate starter fertilizer in furrow resulted in more tonnage and more recoverable sugar per ton, especially when using XLR-rate 2-17-17. A few North Dakota growers who ran informal trials with XLR-rate on sunfl ower acres reported a signifi cant diff erence in early crop growth between treated and non-treated parts of the fi eld, says Jon Berglund, western North Dakota account manager for CHS Crop Nutrients. “Treated sunfl ower acres reached maturity one week earlier. That caught the attention of growers in our part of the country.” There was tremendous interest in XLR-rate in 2014, says Michael Johnson, director of marketing, CHS Crop Nutrients. “We exceeded an aggressive annual sales goal and volume sold more than doubled from 2013 to 2014.” ■ Plants treated with starter fertilizer were taller, with thicker stalks, bigger leaves and more abundant root systems. 14 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 CHSINC.COM