Doane Daily Cotton Commentary

DTN Grains: Opening | Midday | Closing

By Richard Bogren

San Gabriel (July 16, 2008) - Sugarcane growers can reduce the cost of production by following new fertilizer recommendations, researchers said today at a LSU sugarcane field day.

Nitrogen fertilizer, which is made from natural gas, has increased significantly in price during the past year, said Dr. Brenda Tubana, a researcher in the LSU AgCenter School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences. 

Tubana has been studying how fertilizer rates affect yields by using sensor-based technology that can help farmers make fertilizer decisions based on what the crop needs in a particular location. She has developed a calculator that growers can use to collect data and estimate the nitrogen requirements for a particular field to produce optimum yields. 

“You can use this technology to maximize economic and agronomic returns,” she said. 

Nitrogen fertilizer recommendations have been based on historical research dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, said Dr. Rich Johnson, a research agronomist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service Sugarcane Research Laboratory in Houma. 

Johnson said earlier recommendations were based on the use of anhydrous ammonia, the common nitrogen source 40 to 50 years ago. Because anhydrous ammonia is a gas that’s injected into the soil, some of the nitrogen is lost during application and some is lost in the soil. 

The current fertilizer source of nitrogen is a liquid solution that is more stable in the soil. Scientists are recommending that sugarcane growers reduce approximately 15-20 percent in nitrogen rates across soil types and crop ages since newer sugarcane varieties are more efficient in usage.

 By using less, growers are able to reduce their fertilizer costs, which is particularly important as fertilizer prices are climbing as a result of rising energy prices, Johnson said.