Fertilizer prices more than doubled between 2020 and 2022.  Grain farmers had more than offsetting increases in commodity prices, but cattle prices increased only slightly, leaving cattle farmers in a precarious situation going into 2022.  With conventional management, the total fertilizer cost would be close to $300 per cow at spring 2022 prices.  

Consequently, I started developing programming that highlighted strategies to reduce or eliminate fertilizer use on cattle farms during the winter of 2021/22.  Farmers were enthusiastic about this program, and I was regularly staying after presentations for another 30-45 min answering questions related to it.  In 2022-23, I had 8 in-state extension presentations on this topic.  I presented on this topic at the Appalachian Grazing Conference in 2022 and based on that presentation, was asked to present on the topic at the American Forage and Grassland Council meetings (national-level) in January 2023.  

The clearest quantitative measure of program impact was from a presentation I gave for a five-county regional agronomy day (held in Mason County in February 2023).  The presentation was recorded with the other presentations from that day and were posted to the UK Forages website for continuous viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NoSZG7MXmA    

As of 7/11/23 my video had 6.1K views and the next highest was 1.1K views.  They are summarized below:

Greg Halich                                                                    6.1K

Smith/Teutsch                                                               1.1K

4 Other Presentations by UK Specialists                 Less than 1.0K each

Here is some of the feedback I received on this program from two of our county agents:  

Will Bowling, ANR agent in Clay County on reducing commercial fertilizer use: “Given the current input prices, there’s a lot of interest right now in ways that cow-calf producers can maintain some of their margin in the coming year. I think you’ve got the best info coming out of UK in that regard”.       

Sarah Fannin after the Economic Subject Matter training where I presented on reducing commercial fertilizer on cattle farms:

Good morning Greg – it was good to see you at the Winchester update!  And it was good to hear some “science based common sense” (my favorite ag teacher’s expression) topics in your presentation as well…The soil health implications really resonated with me – especially with what I see in our tired East Ky farms”.

Fertilizer prices have come down in 2023, but interest in this topic remains.  With conventional management, the total fertilizer cost would still be close to $200 per cow with these lower prices.  If cattle farmers can reduce their dependency on commercial fertilizer and cut their fertilizer bill in half or more, they will be in a much more competitive position over their conventional counterparts moving forward.  The incredibly high fertilizer prices in late 2021 and 2022 provided incentive for cattle farmers to re-evaluate their need for commercial fertilizer, and to be receptive to ideas on how to reduce their dependency on it.   I continue to see strong interest for this program and plan to expand it in the next few years.