How much nitrogen does corn actually need?
Determine how much nitrogen you actually need in total for your yield goal. Look at the Ag PhD Fertilizer Removal app on your smartphone or tablet. Let’s use 200-bushel corn as an example, and you can see this in the screenshot to the right. 200-bushel corn, in total, needs 224 pounds of nitrogen.
How much nitrogen do you need to grow corn?
For 300 bushels per acre, we recommend more than 360 pounds of nitrogen per acre,” he says. How much fertilizer do you put on corn? Corn removes 1 pound of nitrogen for every bushel of grain produced, so a 250 bushel per acre yield goal requires 250 pounds of nitrogen available to be used by your growing corn plants.
How much nitrogen does your corn need?
Corn plants use large quantities of nitrogen to grow and yield. Corn removes 1 pound of nitrogen for every bushel of grain produced, so a 250 bushel per acre yield goal requires 250 pounds of nitrogen available to be used by your growing corn plants. Ready to maximize your farm’s profit potential?
Does the corn crop need more nitrogen?
Nitrogen in the starter fertilizer is important to meet most of the early N needs of the corn crop if the bulk of the N required is to be applied in a sidedress application. Normal starter rates are usually adequate to meet this need. Starter N rate may be safely increased if you want to apply more of the total N at planting.
How much nitrogen is needed for an acre of corn?
about 200 to 250 pounds nitrogenA 200-bushel corn crop requires about 200 to 250 pounds nitrogen per acre i.e., roughly 1 to 1.25 pounds nitrogen per bushel corn harvested.
How much nitrogen does a corn plant produce?
An estimate of N requirements for corn is 1 lb of N is needed for every bushel of grain produced, so a 200 bu corn crop would require 200 lb of N.
How much nitrogen do you put on a sidedress corn?
Sidedress applications allow growers to maximize profits. However, each growing season has varying precipitation and different environmental conditions that can prohibit producers from applying nitrogen in-season. For each bushel of corn removed, 1.5 pound of nitrogen is required.
Does corn deplete nitrogen in soil?
In most cases, corn requires fertilizing once in the growing season with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Growing corn on the same plot of land without replacing the nitrogen taken from the soil can quickly deplete the nitrogen available in the soil. Corn also draws a significant amount of phosphorous from the soil.
How much nitrogen do I need for 250 bushel of corn?
Corn plants use large quantities of nitrogen (N) to grow and yield. Corn removes 1 pound of nitrogen for every bushel of grain produced, so a 250 bushel per acre yield goal requires 250 pounds of nitrogen available to be used by your growing corn plants.
How much fertilizer do I need for 1 acre of corn?
For corn, if the fertility level is good, a small amount of fertilizer (about 100 pounds of starter per acre) will provide an adequate starter response. Do not apply more than 70 pounds of N + K2O per acre if the fertilizer is placed approximately 2 inches away from the seed.
Can you put too much nitrogen on corn?
Using more than the recommended amount of nitrogen-based fertilizers on corn is a waste of money and could pose environmental risks, two Purdue Extension agronomists say in an updated report.
When should you apply nitrogen to corn?
For most corn hybrids N uptake is complete shortly after pollination. So, most of the N should be applied prior to the 10 leaf stage, with any supplemental applications complete by or shortly after tasseling.
What is the best form of nitrogen for corn?
Ammonium Forms of N More Stable The most common nitrogen fertilizers are anhydrous ammonia, urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) solutions, and granular urea. Other forms include ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate.
Can corn fix its own nitrogen?
A nitrogen-fixing maize grown in an indigenous region of Mexico has the ability to fertilize itself, recent research shows. Now, as a global company and U.S. scientists work to replicate this trait in other corn varieties, will the villages where the maize originated share fairly in the profits?
Does growing corn improve soil?
This isn't necessarily the way even high-yield commodity corn farming has to be; other studies have indicated that no-till farming, for example, can dramatically improve soil quality and reduce the need for quite as much fertilizer and irrigation.
What do farmers plant after corn?
Some cover crop grass options after corn silage include spring oats, spring and/or winter triticale, winter cereal rye, barley, and winter wheat.
When to use N fertilizer for corn?
By the third year following alfalfa, a continuous corn situation is being approached and an N rate as recommended in Table 2 is required to obtain maximum yield. When you indicate on the soil-test questionnaire that your corn crop will follow a legume crop, the adjustment in the N fertilizer recommendation will be given.
How much nitrogen is in the air?
Nitrogen makes up almost 80 percent of air, but that N may be used by the plant only after it is fixed, or taken from the air, industrially or by certain soil bacteria in association with legumes. The total amount of N in soil is large. In Pennsylvania, soil N averages about 0.14 percent, or about 2,800 lb/ acre.
What is the mineral form of N?
The mineral forms of N, ammonium (NH 4+) and nitrate (NO 3- ), make up the remainder of the N in the soil and are available to the plant. Only when converted to mineral ammonium-N by soil microbes (mineralization) does organic N become available for plant uptake.
Why does rain water carry nitrates?
Rain water, in excess of what can be held by well-drained soils, leaches down through the soil profile and will carry nitrate with it because nitrate is negatively charged and is not held by the like-charged soil particles. Ammonium has a positive charge and thus is held to soil particles, securing it from being leached. The potential loss of N by leaching is greatest in winter and spring months in well-drained soils.
Why do bacteria lose nitrogen?
Bacteria in a saturated soil (because of poor drainage, excessive rainfall, or a field depression where water tends to stand) use the oxygen from nitrate in place of the oxygen from air. As a result, the nitrate N is converted to nitrogen gases (N 2 and N 2 O), forms unavailable to plants and easily lost to the atmosphere. Extent of N loss by denitrification is difficult to estimate, but significant losses can occur in less than a week of saturated conditions.
How is N used in soil?
Available N may be used by soil bacteria when there is abundant high-carbon, low-N organic matter such as corn stover. The bacteria need additional N and can tie up available N and temporarily prevent its use by plants or its loss by other means. This is most likely in no-till corn production where N fertilizer is surface applied and corn stover is left from previous seasons. Since immobilization is temporary, there is no difference in the optimum N rate among different tillage or no-tillage methods of production. While immobilization can occur with very high rates of bedding added to the manure, this is usually not a problem at typical rates of bedding use.
How do you remove nutrients from soil?
The major removal of any nutrient from soil, however, is through plant uptake, whether the plant is the desired crop or a weed. Uptake eliminates the chance of nutrient loss through any of the above processes. Some conservation of nutrients as well as of soil, therefore, can be achieved with the use of a winter cover crop.
What is nitrogen used for in corn?
Nitrogen (N) is the most commonly applied nutrient and one of the costliest inputs in corn production. In fact, N application averages 18% and 13% of the variable costs in a corn-corn and corn-soybean rotation, respectively (Duffy 2014). Even so, its cost-to-benefit ratio usually exceeds that of other fertilizer inputs, but growers must use N efficiently to maximize its value. This means minimizing N losses by applying the appropriate rate, and timing applications to coincide with peak uptake by the crop. At the same time, growers must ensure that crop yield is not limited by insufficient N throughout the entire period of crop uptake. A previous Crop Insights (Butzen, 2011) reported on the importance of N supply during the rapid N uptake period (V8 to VT). This article highlights the importance of having a "season-long N perspective" to ensure that crop N demands are met not only during rapid uptake, but also through the end of grain fill.
Where does nitrogen come from in grain?
However, extensive research conducted over the last 5 years has shown that nitrogen needed for grain development originates from both remobilized N (from leaves, stalks, cobs and husks) and continued N uptake from the soil. Research studies include those conducted by Pioneer and university scientists.
Why is N important in corn?
The importance of N uptake prior to flowering cannot be overstated, as this N supports critical ear shoot development, kernel number and potential kernel size. For this reason, corn growers have traditionally targeted N availability to this period, and considered postflowering applications to be of little value. Historical research with older, lower-yielding hybrids also pointed to early application. In fact, many studies concluded that grain fill depended almost entirely on remobilized N from the leaves and stalk, and that postflowering N uptake contributed little to yield accumulation.
How much nitrogen does a hybrid take up?
Recent work by Ciampitti and Vyn (2012) summarized 100 scientific reports covering old (1940 to 1990) and new (1991 to 2011) hybrids ( Table 1 ). The summary shows that, on average, new hybrids took up an additional 7 pounds of N over the season. The timing of N uptake is even more significant - new hybrids took up 29% more N postflowering than old hybrids ( Table 1 ).
How much has corn yield increased over the last half century?
Average U.S. corn grain yields have more than doubled over the last half century, and N application rates have increased as well ( Figure 1 ).
How much protein is in a hybrid plant?
Yields ranged from 200 to 250 bu/acre in the study. The average protein content in this set of commercial hybrids was 9% to 10%. N is a basic building block for all proteins in the plant and the grain, each unit of N supporting 6.25 units of protein production. In this high-yield example, 1,060 to 1,260 lbs/acre of protein were produced. Converting this to a nitrogen basis, the grain removed approximately 140 to 210 lbs of N/acre ( Figure 2 ).
When to apply N to crops?
Current N application strategies target application in the fall or the spring prior to crop planting. Having a supply of N during vegetative development is clearly important, because greater than 60% of the N is taken up and stored prior to flowering ( Figure 5 ). However, only a third of that N is generally remobilized to support grain development. In high-yield environments where the grain N demand exceeds 200 lbs N/acre, the importance of available late-season N is magnified.
How does stover harvest affect soil?
While the effect of stover harvest on the amount of C remaining in soil is not large on the short term, it will affect soil organic matter over a long time period. The impact on other soil properties can be important and immediate.
Is C a nutrient?
While C is an essential plant nutrient, C fertilization is not practiced as C is supplied to crops via photosynthesis from carbon dioxide (CO 2) in air. However, with current issues about greenhouse gases, increased awareness of the importance of soil C sequestration, and efforts to reduce soil erosion, concerns have focused on the impact ...
Does removing a corn stover reduce N?
Removing corn stover not only reduces C return to soil but also N. While the amount of N in the non-grain portion of the corn plant is not the largest component of total plant N (including roots), the reduction in N return to soil due to stover removal will have a long-term effect on soil organic matter and total N ...
How much N should I use for 180 bushels of corn?
So, how much N to apply on 180-bushel corn? I would say that 140 pounds of N to produce 180 bushels of corn (ratio of 0.78) could be enough if he applies a third to half in the spring at planting and the remaining at side-dressing. This rate would work for corn planted back after soybeans (note no continuous corn penalty) and if his organic matter is at least 2.5% or higher and he is mineralizing some additional N. He is at the low end of the recommended N rate and may want to protect what's applied with a stabilizer to make sure it stays around for the crop.
How much ammonia to apply per acre?
So if you want to apply 140 pounds N per acre, you apply 171 pounds of ammonia (140 pounds divided by 0.82 = 171 pounds). Liquids get a bit more complicated because you are dealing with volume and weight.
How often should fertilizer be calculated?
Fertilizer math is fairly straightforward, but since most growers (and even agronomists) only calculate it once or twice a year (fall and spring), it is easy to forget the routine.
How much does UAN32 weigh?
UAN32 weighs 11.06 pounds per gallon, for a calculation of 11.06 pounds x 0.32 = 3.5 pounds. So if you want to apply 140 pounds N, and use a split application, you would apply 20 gallons UAN32 in the spring (70 pounds divided by 3.5 pounds per gallon) and 24 gallons UAN28 sidedress (70 pounds divided by 2.9 pounds per gallon).
Is ammonia a gas or a liquid?
Anhydrous ammonia is a gas but a liquid under pressure. The liquid converts back to a gas once it leaves the manifold. Ammonia is quite easy to calculate because you are dealing with weight not liquid so the calculation works the same as for urea. Ammonia has an analysis of 82-0-0.
