Many corn growers in Minnesota install subsurface (tile) drainage to remove excess water from their fam1land. While this practice greatly enhances agricultural productivity, it can also cause leaching of excess inorganic nutrients, especially nit rate, from soil to surrounding water environments.
Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contamination of surface waters from non-point source agricultural pollution are a serious concern nationwide, as well as in the Midwestern US, including Minnesota. Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico has been an issue since the mid 1980’s
Nitrogen mineralization has been difficult to assess. Many attempts have been made to develop indices of N mineralization, but the methodologies to do so have been elusive. These attempts have included laboratory methods of chemical extractions (Keeney, 1982) and incubation studies (Stanford and Smith, 1972)
Matt Wiebers: Joe Hopkins, Dusty Zander, Chad Hoese
The University of MN publication 08560 and related regional publications provide guidance on N rate choices for corn farmers in Minnesota.
Split application of nitrogen has gained popularity with growers on corn acres as a way to potentially increase nitrogen efficiency, crop yields, net profit, as well as decreasing nitrogen loss. This typically means applying a portion of nitrogen pre-plant, followed by a seasonal application (top-dress) at the V4 to V7 growth stage.
The demonstration site has been in a corn soybean rotation with conventional tillage. The field is well drained and has been grid sampled for fertility levels. The field has 13 years of yield data and RTK is used for planting consistency.
We are seeking to remodel and add equipment to our current 36 row side-dress bar for applying 28% nitrogen to our corn crop. We would like to add a cover crop system to this applicator to apply seed mixture in between our corn rows to get established and then flourish as corn canopy dries down in the fall.
This proposal is intended to monitor the nitrogen requirement and overall fertilizer cost contrasting fall applied hog manure with side-dress nitrogen, strip till with side-dress nitrogen, and conventional tillage with side-dress nitrogen.
With all the different types of applicators of nitrogen on the market, I want to study the efficiency of placement, rater and timing. I want to find that I can cut my nitrogen rates without sacrificing yield. Find the least pounds of nitrogen applied per bushel produced.
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