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Taming wild spring weather with controlled-release nitrogen

Spring is in the air and the rush is on to get those new plants the nutrition they need exactly when they need it. Given the wild volatility of spring weather the past few years, that task isn’t nearly as simple as it sounds.

Erich Wickman, owner of Wickman Chemicals in Atlantic, Iowa, works with farmers every day to help them find the right solutions to grow profits and healthy crops. A farm boy himself, he’s always looked for new and smarter ways to maximize the significant investment made annually in crop nutrition.

“Western Iowa is a place of extremes, we can be too wet or too dry. We see those weather extremes across the country more and more,” says Wickman. “My problem with that variability is figuring out what product is going to fit year in year out on my farmer’s fields.

“Anhydrous certainly is a good product in dryer weather, and leaching is minimized in dry weather. But if we have a wet spring, nitrogen leeches out fairly quickly. We like the ESN portion of the nitrogen, because we can apply that in the spring and have a great deal of confidence that the product will be available in about 75 days.”

“Finding a window to get out and seed is becoming more of a challenge, let alone protecting the significant investment in crop nutrition,” says ESN marketing representative John Niemeyer. He works with farmers across Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Northern Arkansas, helping them incorporate ESN into their crop management plans.

“One of the things we’re talking about more and more is that panic in the spring to get out and apply your nitrogen, and how ESN is something that really allows the grower to sit back and say, regardless of what’s going on out in the field, I can trust it’s going to deliver the N when I need it most,” explains Niemeyer.

ESN has also proven itself a flexible partner for all types of crops and farming methods.

“I have talked to strip tillers, I’ve talked to no-till guys and conventional growers, and together we try and tailor ESN for how they’re farming,” says Niemeyer. “It’s all about protecting the investment and delivering ROI.”

ESN applied at or before planting gives you peace of mind that your nitrogen investment is protected from the unpredictable weather in the spring and summer.

For a study on ESN’s effectiveness in unpredictable weather, click here.

For ESN application recommendations, click here.

Questions or comments? Tweet us @SmartNitrogen.

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