3. Winter Is Chasing Us And So Is Urea - Spring 2026 Recap Pt. 1

Fertilizer prices and spring weather pressure forced a hard look at how we manage time, logistics, and precision across every field. We break down why variable rate fertilizer is becoming the practical choice, especially given the conditions of spring 2026 and how soil testing and better planning help keep expensive inputs from getting underutilized.

In this episode, Sarah and Jodi discuss 
• fertilizer prices reshaping decision-making around variable rate technology 
• balancing fast spring logistics with precise input placement in short seasons 
• using fall planning to line up soil sampling, maps, prescriptions, and controller readiness 
• why soil tests unlock better zone decisions, especially in saline and low-yield areas 
• adapting sampling depth to region, moisture, and nitrogen movement 
• using post-harvest and in-season nitrate tests to measure overapplication in corn 
• operational constraints like one-bin applications driving creative fertility timing and placement 
• noticing field variability first, then building a realistic plan to improve over time 
Need a precision map or the software to make your own? Check our website out!
www.gktechinc.com 

https://gktechinc.com/

Transcript

Theme And Welcome Back

Sarah 0:00

And now it's time for a Geek Speak with GK Technology's, Sarah and Jodi.

Theme Music 0:10

In the fields again. I just can't wait to get in the fields again. The life I love is red and product for my friends. And I can't wait to get in the fields again. No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.

Jodi 0:31

Welcome back to Ag Geek Speak. Sarah and I are gonna sit down today and have a discussion about probably what's on everybody's mind right now after the big rush or the first big rush of spring planting season. It's still mid-May when we're recording, but a lot of things have happened between the beginning of the year and now. And a lot of these things are obviously affecting how our farmers are making decisions. And of course, variable rate and precision agriculture plays a big part in that. So Sarah and I are going to sit down and just talk about some things that we saw this spring, talk about how input prices and other things are affecting how farmers are making decisions and just go from there.

Sarah 1:11

So,

Sticker Shock Drives Variable Rate

Sarah 1:12

Sarah, what's on your mind? There's so many different things that we can talk about in this, in this podcast, in this recap, just of like what we even felt here at GK throughout this spring. It could be everything from, you know, let's face it, we were talking about high fertilizer prices last fall and what a challenge that was going to be. And then I did not have bombing Iran on the bingo card for the spring, which made the fertilizer prices that much worse. And then we could take that out even farther into talking about some of the extreme weather we've had. I feel like after this spring, variable rate is really one of those things that's taking off. It's becoming more even mainstream than what it was before. You know, I feel like in the past, we always had some farmers that were your flat rate farmers. And then you had guys that were your variable rate guys that really wanted to dive in and be that way. And I think the argument sometimes in some places for flat rate was I don't have time for this. I need to get over the acre and I need to get across that acre. And what's interesting about this whole thing is that in the past, I kind of think that farmers have been incentivized to be very efficient in getting their equipment over the acre and maybe not being as quite as precise as they could have been. But enter in, at least up here in our marketplace, urea, that with a cost of north of $900 a ton. And all of a sudden people are thinking, hmm, maybe it's worth it to slow down just a little bit. So I think in the world of agriculture, where supply and demand is king, I am starting to wonder if that supply and demand component is starting to add up to a place where uh there's economic incentive for the farmers maybe to start thinking about making sure that they're that they're doing the variable rate correctly or or slowing down and maybe taking a little bit more time to figure it out. Absolutely.

Jodi 3:19

I think that's such a great point, Sarah, because I I just pulled up, you know, the last time I saw prices from my local co-op for urea and map. And when you're looking at $840 a ton for urea and $935 a ton for MAP, it starts to paint a different picture of how you're going to apply it. Because as soon as you see those prices, you think right to that eroded hilltop or that saline area in your field and think, can I really justify applying that expensive fertilizer to these places that I know that I don't need it? And again, as we talk about agronomy, and both of us have been in the agronomy industry for a while now, we know that logistics do oftentimes trump, trump agronomy. And that's that's all right. But when you bring in these extreme or these more extreme conditions of economics, then it starts to make the logistic picture change a little bit. And I think it is helping people move towards being more precise with how they're applying inputs. Because again, all of us, any sort of retailer that you're looking at, looking to buy fertilizer from, we're all looking at these really, really crazy high prices. And we're all asking ourselves, how in the heck are we gonna do it this spring? And make it so that after fertilizer, I can still make money after it's down on the ground. And I think about it as like, okay, what is some looking fruit that we can use to start implementing this? And I come up from a farm that we don't do a whole lot of precision ag or we haven't in the past, just because generational style, you know, it's hard to go from using a light bar to using a screen where you've got to set A B lines in a screen and it's got a memory, et cetera. But even those things, even going from or one thing we've adopted that's been really helpful in terms of applying precise fertilizer, has been hiring out the co-op to do it, bringing somebody in that can, that has a better controller, quite frankly, and the applicator that can do the that application. And I get it too. There's probably some logistical restrictions in terms of how many acres our local retailers can cover. But that's a really good conversation to have in the fall as we look at these prices to help these locations figure out what they need for next spring so that they get an idea of what is demand. Do we need to hire more people to run applicators? Do we need to need more in the fall? Do we need to invest in more multiple bins for these applications? If they know that you're interested as a grower to start doing more precision fertilizer application, they're gonna work to make that investment and make that possible for you. And that's just scratching the surface of things that, you know, we can start doing if you're obviously I'm an extreme example of not having a whole lot of technology on the farm. There's a lot of growers that have a lot more and have been doing it for a lot longer, too. So again, something that Sarah often talks about is going for the low-hanging fruit. And in this specific instance, when we're dealing with these really expensive fertilizer prices, there's some opportunities to reach for that low-hanging fruit and get more precise with how you're applying fertilizer in the future.

Sarah 6:32

So,

Logistics Versus Precision Up North

Sarah 6:33

Jodi, I think you brought up a bunch of really good points there. Um and, you know, Jodi and I were talking before we we started recording. Um, we're gonna turn this into a couple of episodes where we it feels like there's so many different parameters to this spring in particular as to the decision-making matrix that farmers are being faced with. And and Jodi, I just got to back up because I think you used a really great word when you were just talking, logistics, the efficiency of logistics of getting the work done. Um, now, Jodi and I, as we're recording this, we're both in North Dakota. And one of the things I like to say up here, and for any of our Canadian audience uh that might be listening as well, we have this thing called winter, real winter. Winter is chasing us from the moment we start planting. In particular up here in North Dakota, it actually uh hasn't really ended yet either. And it's the middle of May. We actually had uh frost potentials last Monday. Uh we were hoping it was going to be the end of the frost potentials, and now they're talking about another frost potential for us on Wednesday of this coming week, which will be what, May 20 something or other? Yeah, it's ridiculous. So we always have a very compact time for getting our work done up here, where you know, from the moment that you start working in the spring of the year, you have to get your work done as efficiently as you possibly can. You're one rainstorm away from not getting that crop in timely to avoid that fall frost event. So it's always an interesting challenge for us. And so that efficiency, I think, is one of the things that really drove the farmers, and especially in our neck of the woods, to really make sure that they're getting across the acre and avoid looking at the detail of precision on the acre. But like you said, Jodi, where's the balance between precision and the efficiency of logistics? And I'm gonna call it efficiency of logistics because I just think that's a great term.

Jodi 8:46

So I think that's such a great point, right? And like for us in the Northern Great Plains, I don't love the way that you put it because winter is always chasing us. It is incredible to think back a month ago, April 15th, and everything was cold, things weren't starting to green up, we still have snow on the ground. And even in Manitoba, I know that there are places that still have snow on the ground that are working on field operations with snow and tree rows. Um, but and then the same thing for folks everywhere else, right? I mean, if you're if you're wanting to maximize yields, you want to have the crop in as soon as possible to maximize the amount of sunlight that your crop can capture, right? We're all faced with this time constraint. And so facing the logistical challenge of, okay, what are the things that I need to actually implement some precision agriculture to take advantage of um being more efficient with my inputs? And that does take some time. And it isn't a snap decision that's made in the spring. It's thinking, okay, I want to do, I want to be more precise with my inputs and then making the decision of, okay, what map am I going to use for that field? How am I going to decide where to apply the input and where not to apply the input? It's having a, if you're focusing on fertility, it's making sure that you've got those fields tested in the fall. And I say fall, especially for us here, um, because, like Sarah mentioned, in the spring, as soon as that snow melts, you're waiting for there's such a small window in between that snow melting and when you want to be in the field. And so soil sampling in the spring, not very feasible. Might have to wait some time to get to have somebody soil sample it for you and get results back when you want to be on the field. So having a soil test in the fall is really important. Having a plan for, and and elsewhere too, that might be different for the I states as well. But make that it's got to be part of the precision plan for fertility someplace in your in your stream. And then also I need the maps made. What controller are they going to? Is my controller ready? Is it updated? Are my prescriptions where they need to be? There's there are some more details that need to be considered, but that's okay because they can be done. Just takes a little bit more planning than than making the application in the spring.

Soil Testing That Matches Your Region

Sarah 11:04

So I think the soil test. I just can't advocate enough that if you are, if you want to make the best decisions that you possibly can for fertilizer management, get a soil test. There are so there's there, it it is more frequent than I would like that I end up working with a mapping client who does not have a soil test. Now I could still work through and come up with some ways to make you more efficient in how you're managing your fertilizer. You know, we could talk about where your yield potential varies across the landscape in a given field. You know your potholes that are saline, where you're not going to have as much yield. You know where your droughty hilltops are, and you know where your good ground is. So we can talk about that and we could set up variable yield goals. And I based on that can come up with some fertilizer recommendations. But here's what you're missing so often, and those uh especially like those saline potholy areas, these places have been applied with flat rate fertilizers forever. And so when you soil sample those areas separately, often we find an accumulation of nutrients. So when you take a look at the leftover nutrients that are there and you couple that with quite frankly, a lower yield potential in that area, often you end up having even a more reduced fertilizer need there than what I would have made without having that data layer of that soil testing information. So I just can't advocate enough for having uh good soil testing data. Here's the other thing I think that's important to remember soil testing information depends and how you use it. It does depend on your region. You go to places like Iowa where they probably only do a pre-uh side dress nitrate test if they do that at all, and it's a zero to 12 inch sample. Up here in the northern plains, we're gonna soil sample down to two feet because we will find accumulations of nitrogen left over. Okay, up here in these neck of the woods, if if you have frozen soils for six months out of the year, four months out of the year, water doesn't move in frozen soils, ice doesn't move, right? It's a solid. If your soil is frozen, the nitrogen can't move, so it's gonna be there. Also, we have this thing up here called drought. We have a very different moisture regime here than they do down in Iowa. We get less rainfall, and that is especially true as you go west across North Dakota. You need water to have nitrogen move in a soil mobile situation, right? If it's drought, you don't have that. So up here, it is extremely appropriate to soil sample zero to two feet. And by the way, the sugar beet guys are still sampling down to four feet, which is critical because you can get those accumulations of nitrogen. And at $900 urea, why in heaven's sakes wouldn't you use that residual nitrate that's there to your benefit? But we can't do that if we don't have that soil testing information. And it does make a difference by zone. Nitrogen is soil mobile, it moves. So your topography is going to impact it, your soil texture is gonna impact it. Without that soil testing data layer, we don't have that information. Absolutely.

Measuring Leftover Nitrogen In Corn

Jodi 14:59

And if there's any year that I want to account for the nitrogen, it's and I mean it's every year that I want to account for it. Why don't I want to get my free money that is not spending as much on nitrogen fertilizer? But especially this year with fertilizer and being so expensive and crop prices not being super stellar, I want to make sure that I'm getting and actually utilizing the nitrogen that's already present in my soil.

Sarah 15:29

I do want to add in if you are in areas like Iowa or some of those other places, it might be more appropriate for you to do soil sampling in the spring of the year, especially if you want to understand how much nitrogen is there. It feels to me like some of those areas assume that all of the nitrogen is just gone.

Jodi 15:50

And one thing too about nitrate, like I do want to ask if you are from an ice state and grow corn where soil nitrate isn't standard practice, how are you assessing whether or not you applied too much nitrogen for that crop? How are you actually assessing that? I mean, you can look at yield and say, okay, well, we lost yield here because we didn't have enough N. And I want to ask you honestly, how many times are you actually seeing that where you have not applied enough N and it's caused you yield loss? Maybe that's a core as a case where there's water ponding or a lot of excess moisture, and that's very plausible. But a lot of times, especially in corn production, overapplication is very common. And that's especially when nitrogen is relatively cheap. That's the incentive of what to do. But again, with a nitrate test in the fall after corn, or even a stock nitrate test, um, going in and doing a soil test from zero to six and six to twenty four, or even just doing a test from zero to six or zero to eight or zero to twelve, whatever, doing a nitrate test after your corn crop would be so informational to tell you how much extra N do I still have here after the corn crop is done. And that can say, that can inform and help you figure out maybe I can pull back a little bit here if I've got 200 pounds of N after the corn crop. Maybe there's still gonna be a little bit left here that I can use next spring that I don't have to invest in. And of course, like Sarah mentioned, that is what the pre-side dress nitrate test is designed to do, is to tell you when when you're going into that season, it's designed to help figure out how much additional nitrogen to apply side dress, right? But again, that's not telling you how much excess you had after the crop grew last fall. So just keep that in mind. If like if you are really trying to hone in your nitrogen program for corn and be more efficient with your nitrogen applications, do consider doing some post-harvest nitrate testing in your fields just to see if you have excess and how much excess is still there after your corn crop.

Sarah 18:00

You know, if you really want, um, I I don't know if any of that leftover nitrogen is free, but what you can do after you get done harvesting your corn crop, soil sample it, see what's left over, you can actually extrapolate that out and figure out the value of that leftover nitrogen. If you're paying $900 a ton for urea, you can figure that out. There's ways mathematically. That could actually be pretty interesting. Absolutely, like what Sarah said. You can put a dollar amount on it. There's there's ways. There's ways we can help you. Um, but I I also want to bring up some of the logistics at the you know, for fertilizer application.

One Bin Fertility And Creative Workarounds

Sarah 18:47

Um I I I want to give a big kudos out there to all of the the custom applicators and all of the fertilizer plants. If you've gone into those places, the logistics that those people are juggling is absolutely amazing. And especially from a co-op place standpoint, you know, everyone is trying to figure out how to be extremely efficient in their application, you know, both from from an equipment standpoint, from a labor standpoint, and just making things go. Uh I I have worked at fertilizer before, and I and I know what it is to have a conversation with a farmer on high pressure springs where you know you you can't get to their field um within a day, two days. And and those are hard conversations to have with farmers when the application is under the wire. And it makes the logistics at the fertilizer plant really tough. But again, supply and demand is an amazing thing. Um, I if the fertilizer prices are incentivizing farmers to really take on and champion variable rate technology, um, it's very possible that some of these fertilizer plants might be incentivized to try to help out with some of those logistics. It used to be not so many years ago, it was easier to find twin bin applications. And it's getting harder and harder all the time to find twin bins. So what we end up doing many times is trying to blend, you know, nitrogen, potassium, uh, phosphorus, and sulfur all into one bin. And sometimes that works, but sometimes what happens is we end up uh trying to put things into the same bin that they don't mesh well together in their geographic distribution of their variability. Ufta, that was a mouthful.

Jodi 20:46

But it makes sense. Like, yeah, just think about it. Like if you've done any zone testing on your own fields and you look at the soil test reports, I'm gonna guess a lot of times the places that you need phosphorus in your field or need a lot of phosphorus in your field often isn't it is not always the places where you need a lot of potassium. They don't always cross in terms of like they don't always correlate together that variability across across the field.

Sarah 21:15

To that point, Jodi, I have actually made maps, and I'm sure you have too, where the potassium and the phosphorus are completely inverse.

Jodi 21:23

Yeah. And then you got to do what you got to do, right? If you've got a one-bin application, that's just what you've got to do. But it opens the door for the conversation of all right, if this is my option for the spring application, what are some things that I can do to either apply more phosphorus at planting? Is that getting a planter that has more infra applications but farther away from the seeds so I'm not causing salt injury? Is there a way that I can side dress more nitrogen so that I'm not so worried about having nitrogen in the blend that's influencing where the variability goes for the one bin situation? So it's it.

Sarah 22:00

Is um, or maybe maybe we take a look at doing fall applications of phosphorus and potassium, and then you do your nitrogen and sulfur in the spring. Then you've got one bin doing two products um at different times of the year. Yes, it's that that could be a very plausible solution too. There's a lot of solutions, but Jodi is so right. If if you're having those issues where you've got these fields where it's completely inverse, the economics of the situation is certainly incentivizing us to figure out different solutions to be more precise. Yeah.

Jodi 22:35

And it there's so many ways to skin a cat, like Sarah mentioned. And if prices and if prices of inputs and also prices of crops stay like this, I think we're gonna see a lot more creative solutions in terms of getting those fertilizer inputs to where we want them more so than what we have in the past.

Sarah 23:01

So I think that's a a a great point. One of the things that I love about our industry is the creativity of farmers. Farmers are some of the most, if not the most, creative and ingenuic people on the face of the planet. When there's a problem, they can figure out how to overcome it. They're very creative. So it's interesting because if this is going to be a change in how input pricing is going to be done, I do have faith in the American farmer to come up with solutions to fix this.

Jodi 23:41

Something

Notice Variability Then Plan The Change

Jodi 23:42

I've been thinking a lot about this spring is the process of noticing and like making change, right? So what do I mean by that? I've spent a lot of time thinking about, all right, what are the things that I required in order to make a change? The first thing is always noticing something, right? And so thinking about as you move forward towards not only the rest of the 2026 rolling season, but also thinking ahead to 2027. Notice where your variability is in your field. Think about how you'd like to vary your inputs and make your inputs more efficient. And notice what you have available to you now, right? And think about how I can either use the system as it is or what are some things that I can do to improve it in the future. But again, the first step in all of this is just noticing what you have, knowing what you have, figuring out what your tools are, and then as we spend and asking good questions. The rest of the year. Be curious. Yep. Just be curious. Yep. And even as agronomists, as we spend time scouting fields or moving from field to field, or farmers and tractor time spending time in the cab, it's a good time to ponder these questions of how we can do things better for the future. So, Sarah, somebody's noticed that they've got variability in their field and they have a controller that they can do VRT with. What can they do to create a map and a prescription to get that done and have a map made for the 2027 growing season or even for this fall for variable rate application? You mean

Getting Maps Made With GK Tech

Jodi 25:25

called GK technology? Yeah, I think that's a great first step. I know we talk a lot about many other things besides just our company on this podcast, but really, if you are somebody that's looking to make your own maps for your fields, whether that be for a variable rate input application or even doing some more specific surface drainage or tile drainage in the future, give us a call. And if you're somebody that's not comfortable making them on your own or want somebody else to help out on the computer side to make those maps for you, we do offer precision map making services as well. So if that's you, if that's something you're interested in, please do check out our website and give us a call and we can help you.

Sarah 26:09

GKTech Inc. And you could check us all out on the staff contacts. You can find any one of us there. Yeah. www.gktechink.com. So I do think that's a great segue. Um, because I I honestly believe that one of the biggest challenges for farmers to start with variable rate is just figuring out where to start and how to pursue it. But that's probably a great place to pick up this conversation next time because I think, you know, I ended up working with a bunch of new people this year. I'm sure you did too. And so we could talk about like what are some of the challenges that some of these farmers, you know, face this spring, trying to make sure that they were kind of getting set down the right pathway for the first time out doing variable rate on their farms.

Jodi 27:01

Yeah. So if that sounds like something interesting to you, do be sure to check us out on the next episode of Ag Geek Speak. We'll have the second part of this conversation posted there. Um, but thank you for your time and hopefully you've all had a fantastic spring. And remember, with GK Technology, we have a map and an app for that.

Theme Music 27:23

No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.