Five Tools For The Price Of One: The Case For Farm Water Testing

Karl Wyant, Ph.D.

Karl Wyant, Ph.D.

Nutrien

Director of Agronomy

Dr. Karl Wyant currently serves as the Director of Agronomy at Nutrien. In this position, Dr. Wyant contributes proven agronomic leadership in growing the Nutrien commodity and premium fertilizer product lines and promotes advanced sustainability initiatives.  Before working at Nutrien, Dr. Wyant served as the Vice President of Ag Science for Heliae Agriculture (2019-2022) and as an agronomist for Helena Agri-Enterprises in California and Arizona (2014-2019). Dr. Wyant earned his advanced degrees at Arizona State University (PhD – 2014) and Colorado State University (MS – 2008).  Dr. Wyant is a Certified Crop Advisor and Certified Professional Agronomist (CPAg) and has his CA and AZ Pest Control Advisor licenses. He is chair of the WRCCA Executive Committee for 2022 and 2023. He has received an industry mark of distinction as one of Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Forty Under Forty.

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Aside from common issues with water quantity, the quality of farm water may also be impacting crop production on your farm. According to Dr. Karl Wyant, Director of Agronomy with Nutrien, the chemical and physical properties of your water source are important in five areas of crop production management. These areas are: nitrogen management planning; fertilizer performance; predicting salinity issues; irrigation efficiency and distribution uniformity; and interactions with crop protection products.

“Given the long list of interactions that farm water quality impacts, I would like to make the case for the explicit consideration of what I call “the agronomy of water”,” says Dr. Wyant. He believes water should be managed and tested just like soil and plant tissues because the data obtained from this one test can impact such critical areas.

“The importance of understanding your water quality cannot be understated and a water sampling program will help you form a solid foundation of “water” agronomy that will produce tangible benefits for your farm,” says Dr. Wyant. Talk to a Certified Crop Advisor today about starting a water sampling program and to improve the agronomy of water on your farm operation across the five categories described above.

Read the full article in Progressive Crop Consultant and an interview with Dr. Wyant on the My Ag Life podcast.