AgroLiquid’s Carrington, North Dakota facility supplies crop nutrition products to customers across the region. Led by site manager Jared Volk, this operation is continually adapting to the seasonal demands and increasing growth of the industry.

• Opened: 2015
• Acres: 12
• Staff: 3

Distribution and manufacturing

The main role of the Carrington facility is for distribution and small-scale, large volume manufacturing. This site serves a large territory, including customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and parts of Minnesota and Montana.

“Our site is kind of unique,” said Volk. “We do a lot of material offloading. We can offload 11 rail cars at one time, and then we load out by truck. But we also do small-scale, large volume manufacturing, making two of our main products here – High NRG-N and Pro-Germinator.”

The Carrington facility has expanded rapidly. When Volk started in 2015, the site was only a half million gallon tank. They added the first building in 2017 and installed a two-million gallon tank in 2019. Today, the facility sits on 12 acres.

Efficient team

Three people run the entire facility. Working alongside Volk are Hunter Rindy and Marcus Kollman. Rindy has been at Carrington for five years, and Kollman has been there for three years.

“We’re all pretty versatile in what we do,” Volk said. “We all know each other’s job pretty well, and we can fill in for each other when needed.

Rindy primarily runs load out and organizes transportation, and Kollman manages manufacturing, railcars, and truck offloads. Volk plans, organizes, and manages, and helps with all jobs when it’s busy.

“The team is very versatile,” Volk said. “They can go from offloading rail cars to loading trucks to performing maintenance on a pump without missing a beat. They’re good workers, always coming up with new ideas, discussing solutions, and we really work well together as a team.”

The team members collaborate well in their group of three, plus they try to be as self-sufficient as possible.

“They always look for ways to improve and challenges to take on,” Volk said. “Both are mechanically gifted, so we do a lot of self-service maintenance and can figure a lot of things out before we have to hire out.”

Seasonal changes

Due to the weather and seasonality of fertilizer products, the facility does encounter some challenges.

“Winter can be really hard and can put some pressure on what we can do and when we can do it,” Volk said. “Our facility ships 5.5 million gallons of product annually, and 60% of that will go out in a 10-week period. When it hits, it’s all hands on deck.”

Depending on when the snow melts, the busiest time for the facility is from March to May or June.

“Both of the guys are great, so it takes a lot of pressure off me to guide everything,” Volk said. “I was by myself the first few years, and I helped set up a lot of things to be handled by one person. Two is better, and three is great. Everyone does a great job taking turns, especially when we have long days. Sometimes it feels like we don’t leave, but we know the push is short lived.”

Like all weather-related jobs, the team has to remain flexible when trying to plan.

“Living here, one of the challenges is you never know when winter is going to start or finish, so you make a plan with 15 contingencies just in case,” Volk said. “It’s always a little more difficult when there are blizzards, and you have to get railcars shoveled out in a short amount of time. North Dakota is actually a tropical paradise – don’t let the secret out. We try and hide that from everyone.”

The team consistently gets a lot of work done in a small amount of time.

“Overall, I’m really proud of both of them, the effort they put in, what we’ve been able to achieve, and the plant itself,” Volk said. ”When I first drove onto the site and it was only a half million gallon tank, to seeing it now – it’s a point of pride for me. I’m happy with where Carrington is today and how it has grown.”

See our other facility spotlights.

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AgroLiquid has a manufacturing and distribution plant in Williams, Iowa. They ship products over a large area, supplying locations from Minnesota to Louisiana. Their biggest products are Pro-Germinator and High NRG-N, but they also work with the full AgroLiquid product line. The team at Williams manufactures most of the goods they ship, and they both supply raw materials and receive finished materials from other AgroLiquid facilities.

• Opened: 2004
• Acres: 29.75
• Staff: 9

Lee Gudith took over as site manager in March of 2023.

“In the simplest terms, I oversee the manufacture and distribution of fertilizer,” he said. “I manage both logistics and production. I have a team of logistics associates who are the customer-facing entity, handling calls and scheduling the loads. The production team in the back is manufacturing, loading trucks, and loading rail cars. It’s a job with a lot of moving parts, so I  help make sure everyone has the tools and information needed to do their jobs effectively, efficiently, and safely.”

Flexibility

Gudith didn’t arrive with a fertilizer background, and he was glad to start at the busiest time of the year.

“It was probably the best thing for me to be thrown into the fire, since I was immersed in it and could learn everything fairly quickly,” Gudith said. “The team was great. We currently have three people who have been here longer than I have, and they were all helpful in making suggestions, letting me know if I didn’t have the full picture, and getting me up to speed through that season.”

The Williams team is made up of nine team members, and cross training plays a big role.

“We have the flexibility to move people around to different areas,” he said. “If someone is gone in production, someone can move to containment. Like last week some people were out on vacation and some dry vans came in to deliver raw materials, Dusty Schutt, my supervisor, or I can jump on a forklift and help unload freight. Everyone is happy to jump in and help out. Everything works a lot better if everyone isn’t afraid to jump in there and get your hands dirty.”

Gudith also has a weekly operations meeting with the site managers at the other AgroLiquid plants.

“Not only do we meet, but anything something comes up, the other site managers are great resources for answering questions,” he said.

Improvements

In the summer of 2025, they installed all new production equipment, purchased four new trailers, and made other smaller upgrades.

“Along with the bigger projects, we made small in-house changes that didn’t require a lot of investment,” he said. “This made it easier for everyone to do their job – plus be even more productive.”

For the future, they are planning more facility upgrades, more projects, and recognizing where they have deficiencies and fixing them.

“The sales team does a great job of adding new customers, so we’re always looking for our gallons to grow,” he said.

Culture

At the Williams site, Gudith is appreciative of the atmosphere that makes success possible.

“I’m really proud of not just the projects and equipment, but the culture we’ve built,” he said. “People here enjoy coming to work, they enjoy working together, and everybody is quick to jump in and help – late, early, even on weekends. I think it is a really great place to work with a great group of people.”

Gudith attributed the high morale in the workplace to the AgroLiquid mindset.

“It’s not telling people to do something because I said so,” he said. “Everyone is involved in the input, and everyone has an opportunity to get involved and have a say in what goes on. Because someone can have a vision how something works, but no one knows better than the person actually doing it.”

As a team member, he also knows that a lot goes into doing a good job.

“I recognize that a lot of hard work goes into what we do – day in and day out,” he said. “It’s a gratitude mentality, and I’m thankful for my team.”

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We know potassium is important, but why? Potassium is a macronutrient that plays a large role in a plant’s success. AgroLiquid offers high-efficiency liquid potassium products designed to deliver this nutrient effectively and safely – Sure-K and Kalibrate.

Why potassium is important for crops

Potassium isn’t a building block like nitrogen or phosphorus. Instead, it’s considered a regulator that drives many of the plant’s processes.

Roles where potassium helps:

• Water management: Potassium regulates the opening and closing of stomata, which controls the plant’s water use and helps it resist drought and wilting.
• Nutrient and sugar transport: It helps in the movement of water, nutrients, and carbohydrates (sugars and starches) throughout the plant, from roots to leaves and into developing fruit or grain.
• Enzyme activation: Potassium activates over 60 different plant enzymes, which are needed for processes like protein synthesis and energy production.
• Stress and disease resistance: Potassium strengthens cell walls and helps the plant withstand environmental stress, disease, and pests.

The AgroLiquid advantage: Sure-K and Kalibrate

Commodity potassium fertilizers often require high application rates because a large percentage of the nutrient can quickly become unavailable in the soil. AgroLiquid’s use of proprietary Nutriq® Technology meets this challenge, since it protects the potassium so it remains plant-available longer. As a result, this allows growers to achieve the same or better results with lower concentrations.

In addition, both Sure-K and Kalibrate are chloride- and hydroxide-free, which prevents the long-term soil health damage sometimes associated with conventional potash sources.

Sure-K flexibility

Sure-K is a high-efficiency soluble potash designed to provide sustained potassium at important reproductive stages. It stimulates the growth of fruit, seeds, and tubers, leading to higher quality and greater yields.

• Sustained nutrition: It’s engineered to keep potassium available through budding, blooming, and production, making sure the plant has the potassium it needs when demand is highest.
• Application versatility: Sure-K can be applied in numerous ways, including foliar, fertigation, and side-dress applications, and is compatible with most other nutrients and crop protection products.
• Learn more about Sure-K.

Kalibrate features

Kalibrate is a full-season liquid potassium source that also delivers sulfur. It’s specifically engineered for effective application at planting.

Sulfur is needed for crops because it is a structural component for synthesizing sulfur-containing amino acids. It drives nitrogen use efficiency, since without adequate sulfur, the plant cannot efficiently convert absorbed nitrogen into usable protein. Plus, sulfur is necessary for chlorophyll formation and directly impacts the quality of the final harvest.

• Early-season delivery: Kalibrate provides plants with nutritional support from the moment they start growing.
• Sulfur: Sulfur is important for amino acid, protein, and oil formation. Kalibrate’s inclusion of crop-available sulfur helps, especially in sandy soils or high-rainfall areas where sulfur can more easily leach away.
• Freeze resistance: Kalibrate is formulated to resist freezing, making it an ideal choice for fall or early-spring delivery in northern climates.

Learn more about potassium.

Choosing your potassium source

The decision between Sure-K and Kalibrate often comes down to timing and the need for sulfur. Kalibrate is an excellent choice for application during planting where early potassium and sulfur are needed. Sure-K provides a highly flexible solution for in-season application to support reproductive development and late-season needs.

But you don’t really need to choose. Both potassium products deliver the high-efficiency potassium your crops need to be successful, and you get the most out of every acre while promoting soil health over the long term.

To learn more about Sure-K, Kalibrate, and other AgroLiquid solutions, visit www.agroliquid.com.

~

Stephanie Zelinko is an agronomist for AgroLiquid.

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AgroLiquid has facilities across the country! Today we’re featuring our manufacturing and distribution center in Goodland, Kansas.

• Opened: 2001
• Acres: 12
• Staff: 14

Robert Rall has been the Goodland KS Site Manager since 2005.

Growth over time

In 2001, AgroLiquid built the facility, and in 2002, they brought in thirty 30,000 gallon fiberglass tanks. At the time, they were running one million gallons in storage.

Today, they have 6.7 million gallons of storage capacity.

“When I came here, I knew nothing about fertilizer,” Robert said. “I was a master painter for 27 years…now I look at what we’ve done in the last 19 years, and I think ‘wow.’ It’s been very busy and very rewarding career for sure.”

The team’s efforts have translated into increased output. For the last five years, the facility has manufactured and distributed 12 million gallons of fertilizer annually.

“In 2018 and 2019 we went to 15 million,” he said. “In May 2019, we did 53 truckloads out of here in one day, and we did a million gallons that week. Before the Stockton California plant came on line, we were delivering anywhere west of I-35 in North America.”

Production

The Goodland facility manufactures and distributes a variety of AgroLiquid products.

“High NRG-N is our biggest delivery, at 7.5 million gallons a year,” Robert said. “Pro-Germinator is our next, as we do three million gallons a year on that. Next up are Kalibrate and Access.”

Robert is happy with the expansion of the facility over the years.

“We had massive amounts of growth from 2001 to 2014 when we were adding onto the facility,” he said. “In 2008 we built a 13-tank containment. We started putting up 500,000 gallon bulk tanks, and we put up three of those in 2011. In 2013 we did another half million gallon tank plus a two-million gallon tank, and we hired more people. Then we got grant money and made the street concrete.”

He also takes great pride in the people who make up the Goodland facility.

“I have some of the best employees in the world,” he said. “Everyone has their role, but everybody cross trains. You’d be amazed at what happens here. Sometimes, we get 25 rail cars in one day. We can get it done in two days. Everyone has their own jobs, but when a big project comes in everyone gets together and gets it knocked out. It makes me proud.”

Stay tuned for our next facility feature!

2011                                                                                                            2015

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AgroLiquid has several facilities across the United States for manufacturing, distribution, and research. The first one we’re going to feature is in Ashley, Michigan. The Ashley facility is a manufacturing and distribution center for the company’s liquid plant nutrition products.

• Opened: 2011
• Acres: 14
• Staff: 15

The facility, managed by Tom Hoten since 2011, is a manufacturing and distribution center that helps AgroLiquid deliver high-quality plant nutrition.

Manufacturing and research

The Ashley facility is also the birthplace of new ideas and products for the entire company.

“The research and development products are made here,” Tom said. “We then send them out to various locations throughout the country.”

Once manufactured and tested, the final products are shipped out to the dealer network in a variety of sizes to meet every customer’s need.

“For example, everything leaves here as a liquid in 2.5-gallon container, 275-gallon cage tote, semi-tanker, or a rail car,” he said.

Every season has different challenges, like recognizing the right indicators to make decisions to help stay in front of demand curves. Weather is always a big factor, and it involves paying attention to what’s going on in the regions, and this helps decide where to heavily apply resources, and where to pull back. For the facility leaders, it’s a lot of constantly observing, tweaking, and making decisions along the way.

“It’s challenging but fun, and that’s what I like about it,” Tom said. “It’s never monotonous. It’s the same task, but you have to go about it differently to be successful at it.”

Efficient

The entire operation is powered by 15 people. According to Tom, this structure is by design.

“We run a pretty lean crew,” he said. “It’s intentional because of the seasonality of the business – spring is the busiest, late summer is the slowest, and this way it works well. We’re very efficient.”

This efficiency depends on communication and versatility. The Ashley team uses a collaborative and all-hands-on-deck approach.

“It requires a lot of communication because there’s a lot of moving parts with the day-to-day operation,” Tom said. “Everyone knows how to do everything here so when someone is sick or takes time off, someone can just slide over and pick up the slack.”

Growth

Since 2011, the facility has seen significant growth. For instance, last year they added one million more gallons of storage to the facility. As for infrastructure, they plan on updating and upgrading their fleet. They do all their own transportation and work to meet customer demand and needs with fresh, current, and clean trucks.

Looking ahead, their goal is to continue to perform at a high level, evaluate current processes, and see if they fit their needs as a growing company.

“What might fit today might not tomorrow,” Tom said. “We’re focusing on continuous improvement, making sure we have the right people in the right places, and making sure everyone has the right resources to be successful.”

Ultimately, the success of the Ashley facility comes down to its people, and Tom likes the way his team works together.

“I’m proud of my team’s commitment to the company,” he said. “They step up to the tasks and make things happen.”

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Getting a head start on the 2026 season begins now! As the year winds down, it’s the perfect time to start planning for next year. One of the best ways to set yourself up for success is planning ahead with fall soil testing.

Fall is an ideal time to get a good read on your soil’s health. By the end of the season, your soil has been through a lot of changes. The crops have been taking up nutrients, and you’ve applied various inputs. A fall soil test gives you a post-harvest idea of what nutrients are left and what your soil’s pH is like after a full season of activity. This information helps you see how your nutrient management program performed and helps identify any potential issues that developed over the summer.

The value of knowing your soil

Knowing your soil’s nutrient levels is the first step in building a fertility program. A soil test provides information on:

• pH: This is a big one. Soil pH affects nutrient availability more than almost any other factor. If your pH is outside of optimal range, many of the nutrients you apply won’t be available to your crops, no matter how much you put down.
• Macronutrients: We’re talking about the big three: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). These are the nutrients your plants need in the largest quantities. A soil test tells us what’s there so you can make a plan to apply what’s needed for the 2026 season.
• Micronutrients: Don’t forget the little ones! Nutrients like zinc, manganese, and iron are needed for healthy plant growth and can have a big impact on final yield. We can’t manage what we don’t measure, and a soil test helps identify deficiencies before they become a problem.

At AgroLiquid, our goal is to help you grow the most profitable crops possible, and it all starts with the soil. By having a complete picture of your soil’s needs, we can create a custom fertility plan that works for you. We want your crops to get  exactly what they need, when they need it.

Making a plan

How to get started? Here are the steps:

1. Map out your fields: Decide which fields you’re going to test and where. If you’re new to testing, start with a few fields. Over time, you can expand to your entire operation.
2. Contact your AgroLiquid representative: Your local AgroLiquid representative is your partner in this process. We can help you with everything from sampling tips to interpreting the results.
3. Take your samples: Collect soil samples from representative areas of each field. Consistency in sampling depth and location is helpful for getting an accurate read.
4. Send to the lab: Once your samples are collected, they’re sent to a professional lab for analysis.
5. Review the results: Once the results are back, you and your AgroLiquid rep will sit down and go over them. We’ll look at the data and start building a plan for your 2026 fertility program.

Resources

The AgroLiquid site is full of resources to help:

• Soil Testing and Tissue Sampling
• How to Develop a Fertilizer Plan to Maximize Returns
• Fall Soil Testing
• Thinking About Post-Harvest Fertility

Don’t wait until spring. By making a plan for fall soil testing now, you’ll be one step ahead. You’ll be ready to apply the right nutrients at the right time, setting your crops up for a healthy and profitable growing season. Contact your AgroLiquid representative today to get started.

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Of course, there’s no one size fits all plan, since the soil and the weather make every year different. But, building the best crop nutrition plan isn’t a guess – it’s getting the right information to make the best decisions for your yield goals.

So how can you give your crops what they need and when they need it to maximize your ROI? Here are five ways to help create a smarter and more precise crop nutrition management plan.

1. Start with a high-quality soil analysis

This is the foundation of it all! A comprehensive soil test is like taking nutrient inventory. It looks beyond the standard N-P-K readings to tell you about:

• Micronutrients: Zinc, manganese, and boron are just as important for yield as the macronutrients.
• Soil pH: This is a major component of nutrient availability. For example, you might have plenty of phosphorus in the soil, but if the pH is too low, the plant can’t access it. Correcting the pH is the first step to using the potential of what’s already there.
• Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and organic matter: These tell you about the soil’s ability to hold and supply nutrients throughout the season.

You wouldn’t plan a trip without knowing what direction to go. Don’t plan a season without a soil test. Learn more about it in our Back 2 Basics video series.

2. Set realistic goals

Your nutrient plan should be designed to meet a goal. Look at your past data to set an ambitious – but achievable – target for each field.

Questions to ask include: What is the five-year average production history for this field? What did you best year look like? With the new variety you’re planting, what is its potential this year?

Setting a realistic yield goal helps you build a plan that supplies enough nutrition to reach that target.

3. Analyze your past records

Before you plan for next year, look back at the information you already have.

• Yield maps: Where are your best and worst performing areas? A yield map might show a consistent low spot. Check for the cause – compaction, broken tile, sandy spot? Maybe that zone doesn’t need more nutrients, but instead a different approach to managing an issue.
• Old soil tests: Look at trends over time. Are your phosphorus levels slowly declining? Is your pH heading downward? This long-term view helps you stop issues before they turn into a bigger problems.

4. Do in-season tissue sampling

A soil test tells you what’s in the soil…but a tissue test tells you what the plant has actually absorbed. This is your mid-season report card, and it’s a great tool for fine-tuning your nutrition plan. A crop can look healthy, but a tissue sample might show it’s lacking in something important. Catching a deficiency early means you can put on a foliar application to correct the problem before it limits your yield. Sometimes it’s the difference between seeing a problem and preventing one.

Learn more about tissue sampling.

5. Consider your nutrient source, placement, and timing

How you apply your nutrients is just as important as what you apply. Consider your starter fertilizer program. Your choice can make a huge difference in getting your crop off to a strong and uniform start. Likewise, for side dress or foliar applications, using a product that is readily available and efficiently absorbed by the crops means you get the most out of your investment, especially when the crop is under stress.

Building a plan

Creating the best crop nutrition program is a year-round process of planning, executing, and evaluating. By combining high-quality soil analysis, realistic goals, historical data, tissue sampling, and application strategies, you move from a generic plan to a more precise strategy designed to give you the best season ever.

At AgroLiquid, this is what we work toward. Our products and programs are developed to fit into your seasonal goals. Want to get started? Talk to your AgroLiquid rep to build your best plan yet.

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We know N, P, and K don’t work in isolation, and nutrients in your soil are in a constant state of interaction. They have relationships – some beneficial, some competitive. Understanding and managing these relationships is the next step in fine-tuning your crop nutrition strategy.

Nutrient interactions

When one nutrient influences the uptake and use of another, it’s called a nutrient interaction. This affects your crop’s health and final yield. These interactions are usually in two categories. These include:

• Synergistic

A synergistic relationship is when two nutrients work together to produce a yield response that is greater than the sum of their individual effects. They amplify each other’s strengths.

• Antagonistic

Antagonism is the opposite. This happens when a high concentration of one nutrient hinders the uptake or use of another. Even if a nutrient is present in the soil, an antagonistic interaction can create a deficiency in the plant, which limits yield.

On your farm

Of course, this is happening in our fields every season. Most macronutrients have synergistic relationships. For example, N and K work together to improve plant health and growth. This synergy means that a balanced application of N and K can improve the efficiency of your nitrogen, which can help you achieve the same yield with less N.

Of course, there’s also the antagonist side. The most common antagonistic relationships happen between micronutrients that are cations (positively charged ions), like zinc, copper, iron, and magnesium. Basically, plants have doorways into them, and the cations with the same charge are all trying to get through the same ones. If you flood the entrance with an excess of one nutrient, it can physically block the others from getting in. For instance, an excessive amount of zinc can compete with copper, preventing the plant from absorbing enough even when it’s present in the soil.

Management strategies

Knowing these interactions exist is the first step – and using it to make a profit is the next one! Consider:

1. Prioritize balance: The first step in a fertility program is a soil test and analysis. Trying to avoid too much application of any nutrient helps reduce antagonistic competition from the start.
2. Use advanced formulations: How your fertilizer is formulated matters. This can mean combining synergistic nutrients in one application for the most benefit, or it can mean using chelated nutrients that prevent them from getting tied up in the soil – or competing with other elements – for uptake. Learn about AgroLiquid and the Nutriq difference.
3. Use multiple application routes: If you know you have high levels of a competing cation in your soil, you can bypass the issue by getting at the root. A foliar application is a great way to deliver nutrients directly to the plant tissue. This way, you can be sure it gets what it needs during important growth states.

Avoiding negative interactions while promoting positive ones is a great way to increase your yield. By thinking about not just what you apply, but how nutrients work together, you can help your crop get the full benefit of your fertility investment.

What’s next

Explore our resources to learn more!

• See our years of AgroLiquid research.
• Watch our video series Back 2 Basics.
• Have a crop problem you’re trying to solve? Ask an agronomist.

The post Nutrient interactions in the soil: How can you help? appeared first on AgroLiquid.

It’s easy to focus just on getting the crop out of the field. It’s the most exciting time of the year! However, the groundwork for a profitable next season starts now. By using the final weeks as an evaluation period, you can use this year’s crop to make better decisions for next time.

How can you build a better plan for the 2026 season? We spoke with AgroLiquid sales agronomist Stephanie Zelinko about what growers can do.

Why plan now
According to Stephanie, it’s important to start planning now, before harvest is over. Evaluating your existing crop at the end of the season is a great way to get started on the coming year’s crop. Walking fields now, as the crop is finishing up its lifecycle, allows you see where your nutrient program may have run short.

“Did you have enough nitrogen and potassium to finish the crop, or were deficiencies starting to show up?” Stephanie asked. “How do your corn ears look, and are your soybeans full pod to the top? Your crops communicate – all you have to do is watch. Then you take that information to help build a better program for next season.”

Pest damage and future influence
Growers need to take note about weeds, diseases, or insect damage that could influence decisions for next season, since a plant’s ability to handle stress impacts your final yield. By combining a pest management strategy with a nutrition program, you can help create a more resilient crop. Plus, planning ahead for threats like these helps you respond quickly if they do happen.

“Any stress will limit yield, and controlling pests will reduce the stress load on the crop,” Stephanie said. “From the nutrition side, having a healthy plant will help them through periods of stress. Potassium plays in key role in stress management, and foliar applications applied with your crop protection will help the plant recover quicker.”

The value of data
To get a complete picture, there is definite value in taking late-season plant tissue samples and soil samples. Soil, tissue and sap samples are all good ways to see how your soil and plant are doing and can help connect the dots once yield results come in. Looking over all this information can help improve outcomes for the next year. Once growers have data – notes, yield maps, soil tests – they can turn it into a plan. Since there is a lot of information, it’s helpful finding someone to put it all together.

“The more data you can get from the field the better decisions you can make,” Stephanie said.

Looking ahead: The biggest challenge for 2026
Based on what Stephanie is seeing in the fields and economic climate this year, she shared what change she thinks many growers will need to make for 2026.

“I think the biggest challenge this year and will continue into 2026 is the overall ag economy,” she said. “I think growers are doing a good job overall managing through this time. However, as we continue to see this in another season growers should be conscious on where they are cutting back. Growing a crop off of ‘banked’ nutrients can be a short-term solution, however, as the economic state continues this bank will need to be replenished.”

Before harvest, look at your crop and your data, set a budget, and work through that information so you can spend your dollars to best serve the crop and your farm. Here’s to a great harvest, and an even better kickoff to next season!

The post How to prepare for the 2026 season – before harvest appeared first on AgroLiquid.

Another day, another chance to grow!

Bill Spiegel hosted agronomic experts Stephanie Zelinko of AgroLiquid and Layne Miles of XtremeAg. They discussed how to look at your own operation through the lens of its collected data and adapt your crop nutrition plan to your fields’ exact needs.

Of course – every farmer is looking at every other farmers’ field. While it’s tempting to adopt practices on neighboring farms, the reality is that each field is different. Testing and data help growers make the best decisions, yield, and profit.

How can growers use data in crop nutrition management? Let’s explore:

Specific land qualities

Stephanie and Layne emphasized that what works for one farm might not work for another due to variations in historical management practices, soil types, and environmental conditions. Stephanie gave a specific example of a farmer who purchased land adjacent to his, which he thought would have similar qualities. However, the soil test results were dramatically different due to past management.

“Again, you don’t know those management practices of all your neighbors, and so if you don’t know what they’re doing, it’s really hard …you need to make sure you know what’s working and test it yourself before you make those decisions,” Stephanie said.

Soil testing

Stephanie emphasized that a current and complete soil test is the best starting point for any crop nutrition program. It provides a baseline understanding of what nutrients are present and what might be needed for the best crop performance.

On-farm research

Both experts suggest that conducting on-farm trials lets growers see for themselves how different approaches perform under their specific conditions. Layne shared his practice of testing new ideas on a limited acreage using replicated strips to account for field variations.

“If it’s something new, I don’t like to go out and do 200 or 300 acres without knowing what I’m spending,” he said. He explained that you can understand your standard practice costs and returns, know what you spend on the new practice, and therefore can calculate your actual ROI.

Stephanie agreed, suggesting that new practices be tried on 20 acres – enough to get a good yield reading, but not devastating if it doesn’t perform as well as the grower wants.

ROI

The most important measure of a successful nutrition program is its return on investment. Stephanie pointed out that while a practice might increase yield, growers need to determine if the added cost justifies the gain.

“When you farm you know it’s going to come down to that return on investment,” Stephanie said. “So fertility programs are a big portion of a grower’s budget – anywhere between 16 and 22 percent of the anticipated income typically goes to a fertility program. Growers have to manage a lot of things in their operation, and fertility is just one piece of that.”

Yield maps and other data

Yield maps provide valuable end-of-season data, but they should be considered alongside other information like soil tests and tissue samples. Stephanie warned that a single year’s yield data might be influenced by unusual weather patterns and suggested growers gather several seasons of data collection. Layne explained how he overlays application maps with yield maps to analyze how specific treatments perform.

Win rates

Stephanie explained win rates, which involves creating a database of research data across different environments to determine the likelihood of a positive yield and economic return from specific nutrient applications or practices. This helps growers make more confident decisions about what to test on their own farms.

“This allows a grower to help make better decisions for his operation, so when looking at a specific nutrient or variable, you can take all those data points you collected across the country and figure out when you’re going to see a return,” she said.

Information sharing

Layne highlighted the value of communication between farmers on XtremeAg, encouraging farmers to ask questions and share their experiences. Stephanie offered AgroLiquid’s website and contact information for anyone looking for farming resources.

What works for the farm next door might not work for you, so what really makes a difference in crop nutrition is using data that’s specific to your operation. When growers perform soil tests, track results through on-farm trials, and calculate ROI, they’re making decisions based on solid facts. Combining that data with even more tools – like yield maps and win rate trends – helps build a nutrition plan that fits the land. This plan leads to better yields, higher profits, and more success each season.

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