Released late February, Farming Online's fertiliser recommendations app gives farmers tailored agronomic advice in the field.

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The smartphone app is amongst the most advanced fertiliser calculators in existence and could prove indispensible for farmers and agronomists alike. The app's main feature is a fertiliser calculator, which, once users have entered data on previous inputs, soil type, previous crops and current crop, offers advice for fertiliser applications based on Defra's RB209 manual.

Once the properties of the user's soil have been established (levels of mg, phosphate, ph balance etc.) the app calculates the recommended fertiliser balance needed to achieve optimum growth from a range of crops. It can also be used on pasture.

The new Fertiliser Recommendations app can calculate and advise on over 40 crop types, covering almost all field crops grown in the UK. Calculations can also be made for cattle or sheep pasture.

In its development stage, the app was trialled by agronomists working on FACTS qualifications. These testers used the app to cross-reference recommendations.

Other features of the app include:

• Ability to work offline
• Tailored data based on region and a range of inputs
• Ability to save data
• Soil analysis function – a question and answer format, interactive mini-feature which determines soil properties.

The Fertiliser Recommendations App can be downloaded for free from the app store here.