Try switching to organic program. Zoysia does not need that much nitrogen so you can get away with only 1-2 fertilization a year with cheap feed products such as soybean meal and alfalfa pellets at the rate of 20lbs per 1000 sqft. Probably kick start soil biology with a thin layer of fine compost. That's about it. Use corn meal heavily in that troubled area to control fungus if that's the problem.

Once you get over it turning brown in the winter, then the biggest problem with most zoysia is the glacially slow rate of return after it has been damaged. In my neighborhood the way homeowners cure the dead spots is to renovate with a different species of grass altogether. It is best to go with the species that is most successful in your neighborhood. In my neighborhood that is St Augustine or bermuda. In your neighborhood it is Kentucky bluegrass in full sun and turf-type tall fescue in shadier areas. The elite KBG varieties have allowed the average homeowner to have a showplace lawn for much less than you would expect. If you could nurse your lawn through this season, then you could renovate in late Auguste early Sept and get going. If you want to try to fix your current lawn with zoysia, more zoysia sod is the only way to fill in this season. Otherwise it will creep back over the years. Another approach would be to seed some inexpensive fescue or fescue/KBG mix for this year to try to keep out the crabgrass until you renovate in the fall. Seeding in the spring is usually an open invitation to crabgrass for the rest of the year.

So I have a problem. I re-sodded my yard almost 2 years ago with empire zoysia. I also added two sprinkler heads in the middle of the yard as I thought it was not getting enough water, this was one of the reasons I believe led to the destruction of the last sod and why I had to replace my sod in a two year old home. However I am no irrigation professional and I did not bother to lay cans out to measure how the water dispersed throughout my yard. From my perspective it looks as if the middle of the yard is still not receiving enough H20? I really don't know? At the beginning of the growing season (mid february) I cut my grass to about 2 inches to remove thatch build up! I have been cutting my yard during the growing season at 3 inches. I also fertilized my yard February 22, 2012 with a slow release nitrogen formula (lesco 16-4-8) at a rate of approximately 1.5-2 lbs per 1000 sq. feet. My yard looks great besides the middle section. Also my sprinkler zone in the front yard is a follows; basically the zone is a square. To the street the length =20 feet and from my driveway to the neighbors yard the width = 50 feet. I have 4 inch pop up heads (hunter). 4 each on the width side and 2 each on the length sides and the two i put in the center of the yard! I have not don't a soil sample test yet as I think the problem is with the watering. I just bought a sprinkler last week and placed it in the middle of the yard! I will take some pics tomorrow, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

No need to fertilize brown grass. In fact no need to fertilize until May. If you fertilize before May you can cause the grass to accelerate the use of stored nutrients. Grass normally grows so fast in the spring that you might have to mow 2x per week. If you fertilize early you might need to mow 3x or 4x per week. If that happens it will be exhausted by May and looking very poorly. If you just leave it alone (turn off the Scott's commercials on TV starting in February), it will be fine until May. When you start fertilizing in May, I would either use organic or both chemical and organic. It sounds like the soil microbes could use some help. They will help make the chemical "normal" fertilizer work better. I mentioned bermuda because it will survive in Kansas, and you might have it. If you have bermuda or zoysia, then it is going to turn brown much earlier than Kentucky bluegrass simply because they are not at all adapted to the cool weather you get. KBG is much better adapted and can remain green much longer when property fertilized during the growing season.