Making Every Kilo Count: Improving Nutrient Use Efficiency This Spring

May is here, and for most farmers and growers, the season is well underway. Spray programmes are running, crops are pushing on, and the focus moves from establishment to keeping momentum going. But this time of year also brings a question that is easy to overlook when you are busy: are your crops actually getting the most from the nutrients you are putting on?

Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) has become one of the most talked-about topics in agriculture, and for good reason. With input costs remaining stubbornly high, every application needs to earn its place. Getting more from what you already put on is not just good agronomy; it makes clear commercial sense.

Why In-Season Optimisation Matters

The temptation in a busy May is to stick to the plan and keep moving. But crops in active growth are also at their most responsive to good nutrition. Miss a deficiency now, and the yield impact can follow you all the way to harvest.

This is where targeted foliar micronutrient applications for crops come into their own. Soil-applied agricultural nutrients can become locked up or unavailable, particularly on lighter land, high pH soils, or where conditions have been cold and wet. Foliar applications bypass those soil limitations entirely, putting nutrition straight into the plant when it needs it most.

Manganese: Still the Number One Deficiency Risk

If there is one crop deficiency treatment that consistently earns its place in a May spray programme, it is manganese. Interveinal browningyellowing (and later browning), uneven growth, and sluggish tillering are all signs that manganese levels are not where they need to be. By the time those symptoms appear, the damage is already underway.

Mn350 is Fielder’s answer to this problem. As a high-strength liquid manganese fertiliser, it delivers more than double the concentration of standard 15% sulphate products, with a nitrate-sulphate formulation that the plant takes up quickly through the leaf. It mixes cleanly with fungicides and all other plant protection products, so it slots into existing programmes without disruption. The 5-litre cans keep things practical too, with no bulky IBCs to manage and no product waste. You can read more about how Mn350 works in our Getting Started with Mn350 guide.

Getting the Foundation Right: The Role of Seed Treatments

For crops that went in with a Fielder seed treatment, the work started well before the first spray pass. Surge, our biological seed treatment, places beneficial Bacillus bacteria and a manganese-rich micronutrient package directly on the seed. This gives the plant access to fixed nitrogen and solubilised phosphorus from the moment of germination, building the root architecture that makes in-season nutrition more effective.

A crop that roots well early is simply better placed to use the agricultural nutrients and crop nutrition products you apply later in the season. The two approaches work together rather than in isolation, which is exactly the kind of joined-up thinking that good NUE is built on. In addition to the current focus on this year’s harvest, growers can get ahead of the game by preparing for next year’s seed treatment application now. You can explore the Surge Seed Calculator on our website to see the projected return for your rotation.

Speaking with a crop nutritionist can also make a real difference at this point in the season. Fine-tuning application timings and rates based on your specific soils and crop history helps ensure that every input is working as hard as it should be.

Come and See Us This Summer

If NUE and crop nutrition are topics you want to explore further, come and find the Fielder team at two of the biggest events in the farming calendar this summer.

We will be at the Cereals Event on 10-11 June, taking place at Diddly Squat Farm for 2026. It promises to be a memorable one. Then in July, we will be at Groundswell on 1-2 July at Lannock Farm in Hertfordshire, a fantastic event for anyone thinking seriously about soil health and regenerative approaches to crop production.

Both events are a great opportunity to speak with the team, ask questions about your specific situation, and see how Fielder’s crop deficiency treatments and nutrition range can fit into your programme.

In the meantime, if you want to talk through what your crops might need this May, get in touch with the Fielder team, and we will point you in the right direction.