00:00 Hi, this is Kelly Garrett from Extreme Ag. I'm here with Aaron Stahl at 2024 Commodity Classic in the Agro Liquid Boost. 00:06 Aaron, we've got $4 corn, potentially sub $4. Corn growers are talking about changing their fertility programs. 00:14 I know I have my thoughts on it, but I'm interested to hear what you have to say. So for us, you know, Kelly, I look at, I like 00:20 to look at a soil test and figure out what's, what's the ROI, what are they looking for, you know, and I, the farm shows I've been at, 00:26 the big thing is is I'm gonna cut out my plantar nutrients. I'm just gonna go with what I have. 00:31 And for me, I'm like, you know, we need to reevaluate some of this stuff. You know, what are your phosphorus levels, zinc, 00:36 phosphorus levels, things like that. So I may pull it back a little bit, but I don't believe in totally cutting it outta the program 00:42 because let's face it, $4 corn, we're not gonna, we're not gonna get ROI at 180. We need 200, 2 10, 2 20, 2 30 on up. 00:51 So what are you thinking? I mean, what's, what's your thoughts on pushing that? My opinion over what I have experienced 00:58 and educated myself the last couple years, but if you have a good soil test, live off of that savings account for a year 01:03 or two in a tough economic time like we've got right now. And the thing to cut out is not our liquid fertility, 01:10 it's the dry fertility because of that savings account, we have built that soil up. We've got a good base saturation number, 01:17 we've got good phosphorus levels, good potassium levels. We're not gonna deplete those in one year. Yep. 01:22 So instead of, instead of cutting off our plantar fertility or our foliar fertility, let's cut out that, 01:27 and I'll take it one step further. There's nine things in my inferral corn mix. There's eight things in my inferral soybean mix. 01:34 They're the same except for insecticide, liberate calcium is in my inferral and zinc. Those are the only two fertility things on my inferral. 01:43 I don't wanna take those out because they're tried and true products that return an ROI, a lot of the fertility that I had on the planter in years past, we've now moved 01:51 that to the R stages in the airplane. American agriculture does a great job of producing a sexy vegetative crop. 01:57 Yep. I wanna produce a reproductive crop. And fertility in the R stages is paramount to that. Yep. We need to fertilize in the R stages with the plane. 02:07 I'm now flying the plane at V 10, R one and R five and I see a yield gain and an ROI from that every year because that's when the plant is hungry. 02:16 That's when the ear is filling. And farmers a lot of times will worry about getting enough pounds of stuff on. Well, when we have a good soil, a good balanced soil 02:24 with available nutrients, and then we apply with the plane or, or the drone or the, or the haggy, whatever it may be. 02:31 In those R stages, there's an ROI, again, with $4 corn, that's what it's all about. It's about an ROI And also, 02:40 when we're talking about 8% interest, uh, seven, 9% interest, whatever it may be, when you don't have to spend those dollars for a few months. 02:48 Yep. Think about that savings. Correct. You know, uh, my, my grain bins right now are empty of corn. You know why? The biggest return I could get 02:55 is that 8% interest. I was gonna ask you that. Well, let's look at that from a perspective of our fertility 03:00 and now, so we don't have to spend those dollars right away. And then what, what if there is a windstorm? 03:06 You know, God forbid, what if there's a windstorm? What if there's a hail event? Uh, what if there's a terrible drought? We don't know. 03:12 But you don't have to make that decision kick that can down the road. Correct. But I would not cut out my liquid fertility. 03:19 I don't, I in my soil, you know, different geographies around the nation. In my soil though, putting a big load on 03:25 with the planter doesn't pay, putting a big load on with, you know, quote unquote big load with the plane does play. 03:31 And when I say big load, it's still only a couple gallons. Right. But it doesn't take much when 03:35 we're treating the plant. So have a balanced soil, treat that plant later. And I, I think that's when special things happen. 03:42 And for you, you know, when we met and we talked about your plant food and stuff, you got a heavy load of phosphorus there. 03:47 Now you're talking about putting in some of our proger in there. So Yep. That's What I'm trying to get guys to understand that 03:52 what they're putting up top is not necessarily gonna get to the plant. And let's start looking at getting 03:56 that corn off to an early start. So what are, what are your thoughts? What are you doing? I, that is something new 04:01 that I'm glad you brought that up. That is something new that we're gonna do. We're gonna put pro germ, 04:04 we're gonna put phosphorus back on the planter this year, especially on the early planting. 04:09 I'm gonna be about 80% corn. We have over 5,000 acres of corn to plant this year. Uh, our weather guy that we, you know, we subscribed 04:16 to his forecast, he's talking about a potential frost on Mother's Day for me, May 14th. 04:21 So that early corn needs to have some phosphorus to help get up and get going and quote unquote early corn. Might be a lot of it this year if 04:29 there's a frost on Mother's Day. Yep. Because, you know, what do we mean by early corn? We mean cold conditions? 04:33 Well, if it's still cold on Mother's Day, a lot of it's gonna be put in the cold weather. So that pro germ we believe is a missing piece. 04:40 I also believe we'll be adding phosphorus with the plane. We've been spraying micronutrients 04:44 and potassium with the plane for a couple years now. Now we need to add phosphorus. I don't believe that in the late season. 04:50 I don't believe the root system of the plant brings up everything that we need to help the plant reach potential. 04:56 I think phosphorus is the last piece there as well. That's be something that we're adding this year. So I really think farmers should look at what they need 05:04 to cut out that dry fertility that we've been used to for all of our farming careers and even generations. That is the part that you can cut out 05:12 because of the savings account. It isn't that it's not important, but you've probably built your soil up where it's okay. 05:18 And just don't believe for a second that you're gonna deplete that it's okay to cut that out for a year and stay with the products 05:24 that we know are gonna give us an ROI, let's let's be mindful and have a, a total perspective of what we want to cut. 05:30 Right. And I think that'll lead to a more successful year.