Author: Carrie Knott
Planning Unit: Plant and Soil Sciences
Major Program: Grain Crops
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Despite considerable research findings from the Soils Working Group that Sulfur fertility does not consistently increase grain yield in Kentucky, many producers still question whether sulfur is needed in their production systems. In 2019, sulfur trials were conducted by Chad Lee and myself in soybean. The preliminary results were disseminated throughout the state in the winter of 2020. At one meeting in Owensboro at the Ag Expo, prior to presentation of the results 86% of the audience indicated an intent to implement sulfur in soybean production for the 2020 season. After presenting the results, which indicated that consistent yield increases to sulfur were not found in 2019, only 33% of the audience indicated that they would implement sulfur into their routine soybean production systems in 2020. This is a reduction of about 60%. The audience likely represented about 40,000 to 50,000 acres of soybean production. This indicates that the data presented were able to inform producers of the inconsistency of sulfur response and allow them to allocate input costs to other areas of soybean production.
In September 2023, Brad Lee and I authored an article (https://www.kygrains.info/blog/2023/9/14/soil... Read More