Real Results, Real Insights
Radicle Research
Summer Agronomy Conference 2025
Key Takeaways
- Banded P & K applications are 2–3x more efficient than broadcast.
- MRTN rates miss the mark 80% of the time.
- Split nitrogen applications with broadcast, banding and sidressing can boost ROI by $80/A.
- N-P-K and lime trials are available now for your farm.
- New nitrate testing begins in 2026 for nitrogen trial participants with the Radicle Lab.
What to Expect
Tony Balkwill, Nick Winkler, and Cory Muhlbauer of the Radicle research team at Precision Planting take us deep into the evolving world of fertility and nitrogen management in this data-rich presentation. Focusing on real-world trials conducted on real farms, listen and learn as they share practical insights that farmers and agronomists can apply directly to their operations.
We have a simple but powerful message at the heart of this presentation: small innovations can drive big results. Whether it’s rethinking how we place phosphorus and potassium or how we time and apply nitrogen, the Radicle team is challenging conventional wisdom with field-scale trials and farmer-driven data.
Field Trial Insights
Radicle’s fertility trials are unique because they’re done on your fields, with your equipment, and tailored to your practices. These trials are not one-size-fits-all—they’re dynamic, multi-year, and built to evolve with your farm. Here’s what stands out:
- Phosphorus & Potassium Efficiency: Strip-till and banded applications showed significantly higher efficiency than broadcast methods. In some cases, only 5–8 lbs of phosphate were needed to raise soil test levels by 1 ppm—compared to 12–20 lbs in broadcast systems.
- Customized Prescriptions: Trials use randomized, perpendicular application zones to account for equipment variability and ensure accurate rate testing.
- Dynamic Trial Design: Zero-rate zones are used to measure drawdown and are later flipped to high-rate zones to evaluate recovery—creating a full-cycle fertility picture.
- Yield Data Precision: Only yield datapoints closest to soil test locations are analyzed, ensuring accurate correlation between application rate and crop response.
Nitrogen Insights
Nick Winkler and Cory Muhlbauer dive into the complexity of nitrogen management, highlighting the limitations of current tools like maximum return to nitrogen (MRTN) calculators. Their findings show:
- MRTN Accuracy: Farmers using MRTN hit the optimal rate only 20% of the time. Nearly 80% of the time, they’re either over or under-applying—costing yield and dollars.
- Weather Matters: Nitrogen availability is heavily influenced by rainfall and temperature, making year-to-year consistency nearly impossible without adaptive strategies.
- Placement & Timing Pay Off: An 8-year study at the PTI Farm showed a 30-bushel yield increase and an $80/acre ROI difference by split applying nitrogen with 25% broadcast pre-planting, and 50% sidedressed at the V6 plant stage compared to 100% broadcast applications.
Want to get involved? Visit the Radicle Research page to start your own on-farm trial and turn your acres into a source of powerful agronomic insight.
