Demonstration of Innovative Nutrient Management Strategies Combined with Soil Amendments to Enhance Fertilizer Use Efficiency, Farm Profits, and Environmental Quality

On average, growers in the U.S. apply about 90 lb/acre nitrogen for cotton, 140 lb/acre for corn and 90 lb/acre for wheat, for a total of 9 million tons for these three crops. High production costs make it increasingly important for our growers to reduce crop input costs while maximizing yields to stay competitive in the global market. For example, a 20 percent reduction in nitrogen usage could save cotton, corn and wheat growers over $1.8 billion annually. Several researchers across the cotton and corn producing states have developed algorithms for nitrogen fertilization based on optical sensors. However, nitrogen application algorithms developed in other regions either under or overestimated nitrogen rates for crop production in the Southeastern Coastal Plain region. The overarching goal of this demonstration project is to assist cotton, corn and wheat farmers in the region to adopt sensor-based nitrogen application (SNA), an innovative and proven conservation technology for achieving 4R nutrient management. The system is designed specifically for Coastal Plain region to account for soil and climatic characteristics. It combines sensor based, site-specific nitrogen application with soil amendments based on soil management zones and will enhance nitrogen use efficiency and farm profitability while substantially reducing nitrogen use and its adverse impact on ground and surface water quality by applying fertilizer at optimum rates. This technology is designed to assist farms of all sizes–especially small-scale, limited resource operations. Compared to uniform rate applications, the SNA system has the potential to reduce nitrogen usage by 30 to 70 percent in cotton, corn and wheat production.