Fertilizer prices are high, commodity prices are all over the place, and every acre needs to pull its weight. Whether you’re cutting back on fertilizer and want to keep your yield or sticking with your inputs and pushing for more, the key is making every application count.
It’s a challenge—a study out of Missouri found that 57% of grain yield comes from fertilizer and lime additions. So how do you make sure you’re squeezing every bushel out of what you apply?
5 Ways to Optimize Fertilizer Use Without Sacrificing Yield
1. Utilize the Nutrients Already in Your Soil
A significant amount of the NPK in the soil is either tied up in the soil or sitting in a form that is unavailable to the plant. The key to taking advantage of those nutrients is microbial activity. Soil microbes, key indicators of overall soil health, produce enzymes that break down organic matter and help make the tied-up nutrients more available to the plant. An increase in microbial activity means an increase in plant available NPK.
2. Wake Up Microbes
The problem is, up to 80% of soil microbes are dormant. When environmental conditions are less than ideal, they take a break. Moisture, aeration, temperature, and soil pH can all lead microbes to stop growing. If microbes aren’t growing, then they aren’t releasing those tied-up nutrients, which means plants aren’t utilizing all of your fertilizer budgets.
Microbes need a catalyst to give them a jumpstart.
3. Turbocharge Microbial Activity
Microbes need to wake up, get growing and then, they need to get working. Microbial activity can be measured by the amount of CO2 being respirated in the soil. The more work the microbes do, the more CO2 that microbes release.
4. Invigorate the Rootzone
Placing fertilizer as close to the root zone as possible makes it easier to uptake and less likely to be lost or tied up in the soil. The same goes for microbes - the more microbial activity you have in the root zone, the more effective your fertilizer applications will be.
5. Focus on Chemistry
Improving the enzymatic activity of microbes is important, but adding a cofactor that can further release tied-up nutrients is a great idea. Utilizing microbially available chemistry is key to allowing microbes to create fully functioning enzymes that break down tied-up nutrients.
See the Difference
At Agnition, we created patented Microbial Catalyst® technology to help farmers get more nutrients from every acre. By stimulating microbial activity and boosting enzymatic reactions in the soil, Microbial Catalyst breaks down plant matter more efficiently, unlocking more nutrients for better plant uptake. In fact, corn tissue tests show higher nutrient levels with Microbial Catalyst compared to competitors.
Products like Generate®, Generate Plus® and Commence® ST work within your fertility program to increase nutrient availability and improve yield potential. So, whether you’re cutting fertilizer costs while maintaining yield or keeping inputs steady and pushing for more, Microbial Catalyst helps you get the most out of every application.
Try it Risk-Free
And the best part? With the 2025 Agnition Performance Guarantee, if you don’t see results, we’ll replace your product for free!
See the impact for yourself—Try Microbial Catalyst® with our No-Risk Trial Program today!
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