BOONE, IOWA (RFD NEWS) — With fertilizer prices putting pressure on farm budgets, producers are looking for ways to make every nutrient dollar count as they prepare for the 2027 growing season.
At the 2026 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, RFD-TV caught up with Blake Bird, district sales manager with NACHURS, to discuss strategies for improving nutrient efficiency while protecting yield potential.
Rethinking Fertilizer Investments
Bird says farmers should begin by looking at the fertilizer tools already available on their operations.
That includes evaluating early-season applications, as well as opportunities for wider-row applications, side-dressing, and 2-by-2 placement.
From there, farmers can identify what may be limiting crop performance and work backward to address those deficiencies.
“Is it nitrogen? Is it phosphorus? Is it potassium?” Bird said. “Just kind of dive in there and work backward with that.”
Phosphorus Plays a Role Beyond Early Growth
Phosphorus has long been recognized as an important nutrient for early-season corn development and root growth.
Bird says, however, farmers should also consider the crop’s phosphorus needs later in the growing season.
Corn can have significant nutrient uptake beginning around the V8 growth stage. Bird says that creates opportunities to consider phosphorus applications through tools such as Y-drop or side-dress applications.
Farmers may also have opportunities to include nutrients during later fungicide applications around tasseling and after tasseling.
Improving Nitrogen Efficiency
Nitrogen use efficiency is another major consideration as producers face volatile nitrogen prices.
Bird says farmers should consider nutrients that work alongside nitrogen to help the crop use what has already been applied.
He pointed to potassium, sulfur and molybdenum as examples of nutrients that may need to be considered depending on a farm’s soil conditions and application program.
Bird also described conditions in Illinois this growing season where corn plants appeared green and contained nitrates, but the crop was not effectively assimilating that nitrogen into protein during grain fill.
Weather Can Change Nutrient Availability
Weather extremes can also affect how nutrients move through the soil and plant.
Bird says some sap samples collected earlier this year illustrated the challenge.
After periods of excessive rainfall in June, saturated soils may have affected nutrient availability and movement. When conditions turned dry in July, farmers had to consider whether nutrients had become tied up in the soil or been lost earlier in the season.
That makes nutrient management particularly important when weather patterns swing from excessive moisture to heat and dryness.
Making Fertilizer Dollars Work Harder
As farmers look toward 2027, Bird says one of the biggest questions he hears is how to make fertilizer budgets more efficient.
High fertilizer prices, particularly for phosphorus, are encouraging producers to reconsider how they allocate their nutrient dollars.
Rather than simply spending more on fertilizer products, Bird says farmers can reallocate existing fertilizer dollars toward more efficient application strategies.
The goal is to improve the return on nutrients already being purchased while continuing to protect crop performance.
For more information on nutrient management and fertilizer products, resources, and educational content, please visit: www.nachurs.com
