The Relationship Between Soil Test and Small Grain Response to P Fertilization in South Dakota Field Experiments

Phosphorus is one of the two most limiting nutrients to crop production in South Dakota. Because of this fact, many recommendations for P fertilizer are made each day by the South Dakota State University Soil Test Lab. Nearly 65,000 tons of available O are marketed each year in South Dakota as commercial fertilizer. This amounts to over 18 million dollars or expense for South Dakota farmers. Therefore, it becomes essential that recommendations for phosphorus fertilizer be as accurate as our knowledge of the soil-plant system allows. Those recommendations are currently based on the results of the Modified Bray 1, 1:7 soil test, a test used by many states throughout the Midwest. Based on data collected from 74 small grain field experiments over a 13-year period, this test explains less than 30% of the variation in yield response to P fertilization. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1. to compare several alternative soil test on the basis of field response data; and 2. To evaluate the influence of several factors on the relationship between soil test and yield response to P fertilization