Notes from your Extension Agent

By: Shawna Loper and Ayman Mostafa
Optimum fertility is a key for crop development, yield, quality and profitability. Sampling and testing your soil can improve profitability by identifying residual nitrogen and other nutrients that can then be managed for specific crop needs while minimizing variable cost. If you haven’t tested your soils in the past two years, now would be a good time to collect a soil sample and send it off for analysis. Check out this publication: Soil Fertility & Soil Testing Guide for Arizona Cotton, to review sampling techniques and recommendations. Also watch this video about soil sampling procedure for field crops. As they say, “Don’t Guess, Soil Test.”
Also once you’ve got your soil analysis, it is a good idea to create a nutrient budget. A nutrient budget will allow you to keep track of crop nutrients that are stored and what are needed. Click Here to download the Nutrient Budget Tool.