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| Conventional “maintenance” fertilizer recs are based on calculated nutrient removal rates as found in the harvested grain.
Strip tillers often advocate a 25-ish % reduction of applied fertility while experiencing no decline in soil test values. The premise is “banding equals improved nutrient efficiency”. Many strip tillers are students of what I would call conventional textbook agronomy (relying on calculated removal rates and utilizing conventional widely available nutrient sources). Banding is leveraged as a way to somewhat depart from this conventional agronomy, but yet we don’t account for where the nutrients in the grain are coming from. We cite soil samples that are holding steady - as proof that the system of improved efficiency is working.
If all nutrients found in the grain are a result of direct nutrient transfer from the soil - how is this all possible? The math doesn’t work.
I’m not advocating for increasing nutrient applications. I’m simply inquiring as to how the math works - when the math doesn’t work?
If I’m not applying full removal rates, and my soil tests are holding steady…….?
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Let’s talk removal rates
