Outcomes Based Nitrogen Efficiency Project for Corn Production, Year 4

This project focuses on enhanced nutrient management that involves farmer self-evaluation of nitrogen (N) fertilizer needs for corn with incentives to increase efficiency. Between Iowa and Delaware, 1,590 fields will be evaluated. To date, hundreds of Iowa producers have used remote sensing with replicated strip trials and/or guided stalk nitrate sampling to evaluate their N needs and new N management approaches, and the majority has found they can maximize profit and reduce N losses to the environment by applying far less fertilizer and/or by adopting different application strategies. The high corn prices and huge demand for ethanol made from grain has resulted in an increase in acres planted to corn. This increase in corn acres results in more acres with corn following corn. As a result, there is an immediate need to collect more information from fields that have corn following corn. The surge in ethanol production has raised questions about the Energy balance of corn production. Nitrogen fertilizer is considered to be about 30-40% of the Energy needs for corn. Improved efficiencies in N management will have significant impacts on the Energy balance of producing ethanol from corn. Differences in N requirements from different rotations will be compared and the Energy differences can be accounted for.