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Each year, more and more growers are making use of Summit Fertilizers’ in-season nutrient Fuel Gauges.

The Fuel Gauge concept is based on the fact that it’s often hard to detect nutritional deficiencies in actively growing crops or pastures if you are not able to compare the growth directly with plants that have a non-limiting nutrient supply.

While placing nutrient rich strips in paddocks and assessing growth improvements is a useful observation, it certainly doesn’t create a fertiliser recommendation. It is still just a useful observation.

Summit uses unique software developed for WA conditions that provides meaningful in-season nitrogen recommendations. It does all the hard work, crunching the numbers to reveal an appropriate nitrogen rate most likely to optimise the paddocks potential.

NDVI readings are taken on and off the strip by Area Managers armed with GreenSeekers® and inputted in to the in-season ni­trogen calculator, along with other information such as the paddock sowing date.

The Fuel Gauge software then predicts the response to nitrogen and calculates the rate required to achieve the optimum yield. Grow­ers can be assured that Summit Fuel Gauge recommendations come from extensive local research.

Backed by Science

The first Fuel Gauges went into WA paddocks back in 2006. Since then knowledge of the system has been progressively built and com­piled across wide ranging seasonal conditions and varied geographic locations. Summit has carried out extensive fully randomised, repli­cated field trials to test the validity of Fuel Gauge recommendations. The trials revealed strikingly con­sistent results.

The in-season nitrogen calcula­tor recommended rate produced optimum yields and returns in 17 of the 23 trials. In three trials, the calculator slightly underestimated optimum nitrogen, and in three trials, it slightly over-estimated optimal nitrogen rates (2 were in oatsand 1 in barley).

Broader trends validated by Fuel Gauges are:

• Setting the crop up with sufficient nutrient supply at seeding is absolutely critical.
• Without the right balance of all nutrients, there is no sense in over applying nitrogen.
• There is is no substitute for reasonable up-front nitrogen to encourage early plant growth and crop vigour to optimise yield potential.
• Nitrogen timing is very important, delaying decisions on nitrogen top-up, with the intention of decreasing the risk of over-application and not gaining returns with a sharp season finish is most often false economy.
• Yield is lost each day a crop grows with a nutrient limitation.
• The lower the up-front supply of nitrogen, the more significant the nutrition limitation can be and, the resultant loss in yield potential requires more top-up nitrogen to gain back yield.

Growers should contact their local Summit Area Manager for more information on Fuel Gauges.