Crop harvest is just around the corner, making this an ideal time for farmers to evaluate their crop management strategies. With input costs remaining high and grain prices relatively low, profit margins are extremely tight this year. While it is possible to invest heavily in a crop, there comes a point where diminishing returns reduce profitability and can even lead to losses. Fortunately, several management tools can help you evaluate nutrient programs and determine the return on investment of crop protection products.
Fertilizer prices surged this spring as the conflict in Iran intensified, prompting some farmers to reduce fertilizer applications or shift acres from corn to soybeans to lower nitrogen requirements. While soil testing provides reliable measurements of available phosphorus and potassium, nitrogen remains notoriously difficult to measure accurately in the soil. As a result, fertilizer decisions are often based on experience, intuition and conversations with neighboring farmers. Tools such as the maximum return to nitrogen calculator can help determine economically optimal nitrogen rates, yet many producers do not take full advantage of it.
If you reduced fertilizer applications this year, now is an excellent time to evaluate the results through tissue testing. Tissue samples measure the actual nutrient concentrations within the plant, providing a direct assessment of nutrient uptake throughout the growing season. When combined with soil test results, tissue analysis can offer valuable insight into whether your nutrient management program met crop needs, was overly conservative, or could potentially be reduced further in future years.
Crop protection products are another area where many farmers are looking for opportunities to cut costs. There is no question that fungicides can effectively suppress diseases such as northern corn leaf blight, tar spot, frogeye leaf spot and many other pathogens that affect crop production. However, fungicide applications must protect enough yield to cover both the product and application costs before they become profitable.
In years with severe disease pressure, fungicides can preserve a significant amount of yield. However, research shows that corn fungicides typically provide an average yield benefit of approximately 3 to 4 bushels per acre. With local corn prices around $4.34 per bushel, a fungicide treatment would need to cost less than $17.36 per acre to generate a positive return on investment.
Local research highlights the importance of evaluating these decisions carefully. On-farm trials conducted in Trumbull County over three years to assess fungicide effectiveness against white mold in soybeans never produced a positive ROI. This included the 2023 growing season, when white mold pressure reached historically high levels. Many of the products tested failed to produce measurable yield increases compared with untreated check plots.
Although it is impossible to predict precisely when disease outbreaks will occur, several decision-support tools can help determine whether a fungicide application is warranted. The Crop Risk Tool and Fungicide ROI Calculator, both available through the Crop Protection Network, use local weather conditions and production information to estimate disease risk and potential economic returns.
By incorporating these tools into your management decisions, you can make more informed choices and improve the likelihood that every input contributes positively to your bottom line.
