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Amazing drone footage of a MN farmer protecting water quality

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Dan Erickson and his family farm near Alden in Southern Minnesota.

Dan Erickson and his family farm near Alden in Southern Minnesota.

Dan Erickson, a third-generation farmer near Alden in Southern Minnesota, joined a growing number of corn farmers this year who side-dress nitrogen.

Nitrogen, aka fertilizer, is needed to provide nutrients that grow corn — Minnesota’s most bountiful crop that produces food, feed, fiber and fuel for the entire world. Technological advancements, combined with years of farmer-funded research, now make it possible for corn farmers to apply nitrogen at different times during the growing season.

This process is known as side-dressing. A drone recently captured footage of Erickson side-dressing nitrogen about a month ago.

 

 

Corn plants use different amounts of nitrogen at different stages of growth. In a typical Minnesota year, a corn plant needs the most nitrogen around mid-July. Instead of applying an entire season’s worth of nitrogen in the fall or spring, side-dressing allows corn farmers to “feed” the plant with the amount of nitrogen it needs at that specific time.

This has several benefits to both farmers and non-farmers:

  • Nitrogen not used by the corn plant can be washed into nearby waterways during heavy rains. By side-dressing nitrogen, farmers are giving corn plants nitrogen when they need it most, ensuring that the plant uses the nitrogen before it can end up in waterways.
  • Nitrogen is expensive! Farmers invest a lot of money every year in nitrogen. They want to see their investment used by the crop, not washed into the river by a heavy downpour.

Side-dressing is a conservation practice, even if you don’t hear farmers talk about it in that context. Erickson also incorporates other common conservation practices on his family farm to protect water quality and soil health.

  • Erickson has 12 terraces on four different fields that help keep soil in place and nitrogen out of nearby waterways.
  • Grass waterways help Erickson prevent vulnerable areas of his fields from washing out and losing soil and fertilizer during large rain events.
  • Buffers of 16.5 feet protect all of his drainage ditches from fertilizer and soil runoff.
  • 80 acres of alfalfa is mixed into Erickson’s corn and soybean rotation to improve soil fertility.

“Farmers are doing a lot to continuously improve our conservation efforts,” Erickson said. “Side-dressing is one of the more recent examples.”

And it sure is cool to see from hundreds of feet above ground. Here’s more drone footage of Erickson in full side-dress mode.

 

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