Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

This series of meetings was in a virtual setting, hosted by Clemson University. The meeting was jointly held with the SERA-6 Southern Region, and the Northeast soil testing/plant analysis group NECCE-1012 on consecutive Tuesday mornings, June 15, June 22 and June 29. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange recently developed information and focus of each of the groups, with the objectives of understanding each other's activities and look for synergies between the committees.

June 15-

    Deanna Osborne, NC State and Nathan Slaton, University of Arkansas- Development of national database of P and K rate trials. This presentation was to explain the progress being made in developing a national database of P and K rate trials and the minimum requirements of a data set to be included within the database. It was generally agreed that such a repository had its strengths, but that the data might be open to abuse if one thought that all responses of crops to P and K were similar nationally. In our own NCERA-13 committee discussions after the meeting, it was generally agreed that forming a database within region, with similar climate, generally similar soils had more merit than soils with vast national differences.

    Quirine Ketterings, Cornell. Presentation was based on the assumption that corn yield and N rate are related and that the current NY formula for corn rate based on yield goal was a legitimate basis for recommendations. There has been and continues to be a large amount of time and energy committed to developing modern yield goals for soil types in NY. Our committee laments the use of yield goal as a basis for N recommendations and has gone to relative yield-based economic production functions. These relative yield based, economic functions consider the efficienty of N use in good years and bad and the profitability of N application based on N cost and crop price. These ideas were conveyd to Dr. Ketterings following the meeting, but I think she was not convinced.

   Antonio Mallarino explained the difficulty in K recommendations and K nutrition in corn in Iowa. He explained the history of K soil testing in the state, from a moist-soil-based test to a dry-test, and then back to a moist-test. He is aware of the influence of clay chemistry in North Dakota on the critical K values required; however, his soils are largely smectitic-based, which is perhaps why the moist-soil test has been most effective for him. Potassium nutrition is much more complicated than most people credit.

The NCERA-13 had a short meeting virtually after the joint meeting. It was decided to meet virtually perhaps in July and discuss the National Database once again, as well as a meeting in February 2022 with a day for industry involvement from the region.

June 22

   Frank Sikora provided information regarding hemp testing services for CBD and soil fertility recommendations.

   Andrew Margenot provided information regarding development of soil health testing in Illinois to help benchmark and track progress in soil health activities in his state.

   Charlie White in the NE group provided information on N recommendations, again based on yield goal. It is generally perceived that the NE group is fixated with yield goal, and they may need to consider the vast amount of literature accumulated in the midwest on relative yield before real progress in recommendation advancement is achieved.

June 29

 Newell Kitchen provided a presentation from USDA-ARS, Columbia, MO on an 8-state private-univeristy study on N recommendations. The bottom-line was that one N recommendation system for the entire region is not possible, and that N recommendations probably need to be made at the state or intra-state level for most effective recommendations.

Audrey Gamble, Auburn University

  Provided a report on soil health testing in the Southern Region, encouraging her colleagues to become involved in sharing data from their soil health testing research.

Kristin Hicks, North Carolina

  Provided a report on progress in developing hemp plant analysis critical ranges for all nutrients. The effort is based on gathering data from several studies and using a quartile histogram as a basis for determining sufficiency ranges, in addition to using studies that identified plant analysis data associated with nutrient deficiencies.

Short-term Outcomes: Farmers, landowners and the public have better understanding of their soil and the need for nutrient supplementation due to the ongoing activities of the committee.

Outputs: The soil test labs operated by North Dakota State University, University of Missouri, Michigan State University, University of Wisconsin and Kansas State University analyze over 100,000 soil samples, and numerous water and plant samples for farmers, crop consultants and researchers. These analyses provide immediate assistance in modifying nutrient inputs to economically benefit farmers and reduce excessive nutrient application resulting in environmental benefits around their land. They assist researchers to better determine their treatment differences by not confounding their results with spatial nutrient differences.The committee members at the Universities without state laboratories provide assistance to indepently operated laboratories in their state and region on legitimate testing procedures and interpretations of results. Most of the committee participants conduct field trials to improve nutrient recommendations and soil test procedures for nutrient recommendations and soil health assessment.

Activites: A joint SERA-6 and NECCE-1012 and NCERA-13 virtual set of meetings was held June 15, 22, and 29, hosted by Shannon Alford of Clemson University. A virtual meeting of NCERA-13 was also held June 15 after the morning joint meeting session. Another planning meeting is planned for sometime in July, 2021. A meeting of the NCERA-13 face-to-face meeting in February, 2022 will be planned, including industry representatives in a workshop in association with our meeting.

Milestones: At some point, the committee should aim for a publication on soil health assessment methods; however, these methods are still in development and assessment, so no milestone data is appropriate for the present.

Literature that directly utilizes NCERA13 soil testing/plant analysis methods in the North Central Region within individual states or multi-state regions:

Recommended chemical soil test procedures. 2015. Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin SB 1001. Revised. https://extensiondata.missouri.edu/pub/pdf/specialb/sb1001.pdf

Franzen, D.W. & NCERA-13 committee. Limitations of the sulfate-sulfur soil test as a predictor of sulfur response. 2018. NDSU Extension Circular SF1880. http://ncera-13.missouri.edu/pdf/Limitations_of_Sulfate_2018.pdf

University of Minnesota recommendations and use of soil testing- https://extension.umn.edu/nutrient-management/testing-and-analysis

University of Minnesota recommendations for plant analysis - https://extension.umn.edu/testing-and-analysis/understanding-plant-analysis-crops

Michigan State Fertilizer Recommendation Program, requiring soil test value input -

 https://soilweb.spnl.msu.edu/fmi/webd?homeurl=https://www.canr.msu.edu/fertrec/#WebClient

Culman et al. Michigan/Ohio/Indiana Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations. 2020.    https://agcrops.osu.edu/FertilityResources/tri-state_info

Fernandez F. and R.G. Hoeft. Managing soil pH and crop nutrients. Chapter 8 in Illinois Agronomy Handbook. http://extension.cropsciences.illinois.edu/handbook/pdfs/chapter08.pdf

Soil test interpretations and recommendations handbook. University of Missouri, revised 2004. http://aes.missouri.edu/pfcs/soiltest.pdf

A General Guide for Crop Nutrient and Limestone Recommendations in Iowa. Rev. 2013. file:///C:/Users/david.franzen/Downloads/PM1688%20(4).pdf

Shaver, T. Nutrient management for agronomic crops in Nebraska. https://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/pdf/ec155.pdf

Clark, J. Fertilizer Recommendation Guide for South Dakota. Rev. 2020. https://extension.sdstate.edu/fertilizer-recommendation-guide

Kansas State University fertilizer recommendations. https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/services/soiltesting/fertilizer-recommendations/index.html

North Dakota Fertilizer Recommendation Tables and Equations. SF882 Rev. 2020. https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/soils.del/pdfs/North_Dakota_Fertilizer_Recommendation_Tables_and_Equations_SF882.pdf

North Dakota corn N calculator https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/soils/corn/

North Dakota spring wheat & durum N calculator https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/soils/wheat/

North Dakota sunflower N calculator https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/soils/sunflower/

North Dakota corn K calculator https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/soils/corn_k/

Nutrient management in Wisconsin https://ipcm.wisc.edu/downloads/nutrient-managment/

Laboski and Peters. Nutrient application guidelines for field, vegetable, and fruit crops in Wisconsin. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0145/8808/4272/files/A2809.pdf