Tag Archives: nitrogen

Industry NewsCorn Plants Need Well-Balanced Diets, Too

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Dr. Fred Below, plant physiologist and professor with the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana

Eating healthy is always a favorite topic around the New Year when people make resolutions, but have you ever considered the importance of providing a well-balanced diet for your corn crop? After all, corn plants are living, breathing organisms! They have needs, too.

Dr. Fred Below, plant physiologist and professor with the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, says 50% of corn yield is determined by weather and nitrogen. We can all agree that weather greatly affects nitrogen usage and efficiency. While no one can control Mother Nature, Dr. Below says farmers can manage nitrogen to have as much impact on yield as weather.

Nitrogen is a mobile nutrient, so the timing of fertilizer application is critical to meet a plant’s needs. The plant’s biggest need for fertilizer is between V12-R1. With this in mind, Dr. Below asks why so many farmers are applying nitrogen seven months before the plant needs it. Consider this analogy:

You want to throw a party during the third week of June 2012. However, canned beverages can be purchased cheaper in early November 2011. You stock up on drinks and store them, on the edge of your field, near the road for seven months. Will those beverages still be located in the same spot on June 22, a hot, dry day when you’re especially thirsty and want to drink 7 cans?

Instead of providing a feast or famine situation for a corn plant, Dr. Below says farmers can benefit from controlling the release of fertilizer and by managing micronutrients. During a presentation to a group of farmers and Seed-2-Soil® clients in Clear Lake last Thursday, he showed how taking a system approach that combines seed technology with fertilizer technology can significantly – and consistently – improve corn yields.

Have you set a goal of consistently raising 250- or 300-bushel corn? Nitrogen management is key, but it’s not the only factor influencing yield. Click here to see Dr. Below’s 7 Wonders of the Corn World, which are the seven factors that have the most influence on yield.

From the FieldConsiderations for NH3 Application

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Kurt Metzger, West Area Seed Solutions Specialist, MaxYield CooperativeGuest blog by Kurt Metzger,
West Area Seed Solutions Specialist, MaxYield Cooperative

Unusually dry weather this fall has corn growers asking questions about whether or not they should wait to apply Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3).

Applying NH3 in dry soils is actually the best situation if a producer can get it to seal. The NH3 bar must be deep enough to get adequate soil separation between the point of ammonia injection and the depth where corn seed will be planted next spring, as stated by John Sawyer, Department of Agronomy, in his recent Integrated Crop Management News article entitled, “Anhydrous Ammonia Application and Dry Soils.”

At MaxYield Cooperative, we began applying NH3 nearly two weeks ago. It was exceptionally dry then, so we made sure the NH3 bar was in the ground 6 to 7” (4-6” is typical). We’re recommending that producers apply nitrogen deeper to help prevent damaging seed next spring. This same point is made in Sawyer’s newsletter article. He writes, “Shallower injection, greater movement upward from the injection point, wider knife spacing, or higher rates can lead to ammonia being in the seeding area at rates high enough to cause damage” next spring.

Fortunately, the newer NH3 bars have much better disk closers and will be more aggressive to move the soil in order to seal the in the soil.

Another point is with the dryer soils, the zone that the ammonia in the soil becomes a larger radius to attach to the clay. This means it takes more moisture next spring in order for leaching to occur. Remember the nitrogen moves with the soil water profile and only will move with the excess moisture. Use of N-Serve is still very much recommended.

With that said, however, overnight rainfall will help mellow the soil and provide for better sealing upon NH3 application. Soils are so dry that it will take many more inches of rain before it’s too much moisture is a concern. The best analogy is that our glass is only ¼ full now, so we have a lot of room before rain fills our glass and runs it over next spring.

From the FieldSouthwestern Iowa Crop Report 11/2/11

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We recently harvested a corn side-by-side in Woodbury County, Iowa, with the following results:

  • Latham 6396 232.2 bu/A
  • Wyffels 8681 219.8
  • Fontenelle 8A818 211.8

Harvest is rapidly winding down in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. There is only a scattering of producers with a few acres to harvest here and there. Producers are busy baling corn stocks and applying animal waste, as well as Nitrogen for next year’s production. The soil is extremely dry right now, so growers may want to weigh the cost of lost nitrogen.