With planting wrapping up, Agricen’s Scott Lay sat down with WITY Radio’s Dennis Michelsen to discuss how Extract PBA can enhance sidedress nitrogen applications.
Dennis - WITY Radio: With the wet spring, I think it makes a product like Extract PBA even more important this year.
Scott - Agricen: With the later planting, advancing the crop through all of its physiological stages from emergence on out is critical. One way we can do that is by increasing nutrient availability with Extract PBA to hasten maturity and move the crop through its growth phases as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
Dennis - WITY Radio: There’s no doubt from the trials that have been done over the years that Extract PBA really does help improve the efficiency of a sidedress application of liquid nitrogen. How and why does this work so well?
Scott - Agricen: By incorporating Extract PBA in a sidedress UAN 28 or 32 application, we’re able to increase the pool of available nitrogen by mineralizing more nutrients that are already in the soil profile—in other words, converting that nitrogen into an inorganic form the plant can use. And our university studies have shown that we’re able to increase the available nitrate levels by about 10 percent with Extract PBA, giving the applied nitrogen a higher level of efficiency.
Dennis - WITY Radio: When is the optimal time to sidedress nitrogen and use Extract PBA?
Scott - Agricen: In general terms, the ideal timing is starting at about V4 up to about V10 or V11. But why is that timing critical? Dr. Below at the University of Illinois has done a lot of work around nutrient partitioning in a corn plant, and he’s determined that the period from V6 up through tasseling is the time of rapid nitrogen uptake during which that plant will consume 7 pounds of nitrogen per day. So, it makes sense to apply nitrogen in the time frame to coincide with the crop's physiological demand for nitrogen.
Dennis - WITY Radio: There have been some impressive trials with Extract PBA in nitrogen sidedress trials. This has been very effective with all different types of soil types.
Scott - Agricen: The idea of increasing the nitrogen mineralization rate or increasing the amount of available nitrate in the soil translates to any soil type or growing environment. Over our third-party and internal split-field type trials, the average yield response has been about 8 bushels with Extract PBA compared to check. Right now, it takes less than 2 bushels of additional yield to pay for this technology. With today's economics, it becomes a better investment by the day.
Extract PBA is available from Nutrien Ag Solutions.
This interview was edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview below or on Agricen's YouTube channel.
Learn more about using Extract PBA in a sidedress nitrogen application by downloading the UAN sidedress bulletin.
