The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, May 16, 1963, farm home Section, Image 14

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    MICRONUTRIENTS
~tLt 0O4J toft uie&L
be/iAuiuLeti
Heavy yields, year after year, may lx* causing you big trouble
even though you have seemingly been using adequate rate*
of fertilizer. If your com, and other crops, don't seem to re
spond to high rates of fertilizer any more like they should, tlx*
trouble may well be MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCY
In a recent nationwide survey among state experiment sta
tions, virtually all states reported micronutrient shortages
Boron deficiency was the most widespread, being deficient in
41 states. Thirty-eight states reported boron deficiency' was
seriously cutting their alfalfa yields
Other micronutrients which are known to be deficient in
some soils are copper, iron, manganese, molylxlenum and zinc.
Recognition of zinc deficiency in com is recent in many states,
which further suggests the need for applying micronutrient
elements as yields are steppes! up.
What approach to the problem can yon take? Get assistance
from your county extension specialist who can obtain help from
the state agricultural experiment station in diagnosing your
problem. You can start in the early stages of crop growth . . .
the signs will already be there and there’ll still be time to take
some corrective measures.
If only part of your field shows signs of micronutrient defici
ency (less growth, yellowing of plants or even death in some
cases) you will need to obtain samples of the plants from
the troubled areas, as well as samples from the more normal
areas. Foliage tests can be run on both for comparison. How
ever, some state experiment stations are not equipped to run
tests for all micronutrients.
Probably the best micronutrient tests can be run by you
. . . right on your own farm, using test strips of single miero
nutrients either on the soil, or as a foliage spray. It must l>e
pointed out, however, that regular amounts of nitrogen
phosphate-potash fertilizers should be used in both your control
strips and the trace element application areas.
This may seem like a lot of trouble, but it may prove highly
profitable. In Nebraska a recommendation for the application
of 10 to 20 pounds of zinc is made whenever topsoil is re
moved in the process of leveling land for irrigation or building
terraces. This practice has resulted in the difference between
farmers obtaining no crop when not treated and 75 to 100
bushels of com when treated. Considering that zinc can be
purchased for as low as 40 to 45 cents per pound of metal and
that the cost of com production runs about 100 times that
amount whether or not a single bushel is produced, there’s a
tremendous return on the investment.
In iron deficient fields in eastern Nebraska 50 cents worth
of iron sprayed on foliage has doubled the yield of soybeans
from 12 to 24 bushels.
Sometimes micronutrient deficiencies do not occur until
higher yield levels are reached. In Wisconsin, for example,
zinc and copper were sufficient for corn at a 100-bushel level.
Increasing the major nutrient level (N-P-K) upped the yield
another 25 bushels . . . but the addition of 2 pounds of copper
oxide and 10 pounds of zinc sulfate further increased the yield
by 16 bushels.
A word of warning ... be careful not to put on more micro
nutrients than recommended . . . nor should you put micro
nutrients cm indiscriminately. Yields have sometimes been de
pressed rather than helped under these conditions. It's best
to get the recommended rates from your state experiment sta
tion, or commercial companies who specialize in such matters.
Many commercial fertilizer manufacturers add micronu
trients to their regular grades. Usually this does not supply
enough micronutrients to correct visable micronutrient defici
encies, but when scientifically added to N-P-K fertilizers to fit
the area and crop, the yield difference is often startling ... if
nothing else it at least helps maintain the storehouse of micro
nutrients in the soil.
Fight scours from both sides of the infection with
Terramycin Scours Tablets
How do you know where the trouble is when
germs first hit? In the gut where scours start
... or the blood where pneumonia and other
diseases spread ... or both? You don't!
That’s why you should always use Terramydn
Scours Tablets to save your calves.
It works both ways—in the gut and in the blood.
Most other antibiotics and nitrofurans sold in
farm stores today work only in the gut; of the
few that do get into the blood, none matches
Terramydn’s long-lasting broad-spectrum power.
They break down more rapidly or are inacti
vated more (tied up) by proteins or calcium in
the blood. That’s why Terramycin gives you
high, long-lasting blood levels without injection
to fight diseases throughout the body . . . not
just the gut alone.
See why Terramycin Scours Tablets are the larg
est selling antibiotic tablets. Because you don’t
have to bet your calf’s life with half-right treat
ments . . . Terramycin works both ways—in the
gut and in the blood.
Science for the world'm well-being*
Chaa. Pfizer & Co., Inc.,
New York 17, N. Y.
_