Wheat Pete’s Word, Dec 2: Figuring Out Late Nitrogen in Corn

There’s been plenty of discussion about split nitrogen applications in corn — what’s the best way to maximize yield potential? In this week’s Word with Peter Johnson, resident agronomist for RealAgriculture and host of this weekly podcast, he delves into the research looking at nitrogen application timing, method, formulation and more. It’s a surprisingly corn-focused update from a guy who’s best known as “Wheat Pete.” Enjoy.

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Highlights:

• Yield impact from late nitrogen application largely depends on rainfall amount and timing.
• In the words of Greg Stewart: “We’re 30 days smarter on the 10th of June than we are on the 10th of May and another 30 days smarter on the 10th of July.”
• As a rule of thumb, if you get 6 inches of rain in a 30 day period, your corn probably needs more nitrogen (although that could vary widely depending on soil type.)
• Y-drops versus drop pipes versus dry urea box on high clearance sprayer — what’s best method for applying N late in corn? Depends on many factors, including equipment, driving speed, availability, soil type.
• A reference to the 5/50/fungicide (five thousand more plants, 50 additional pounds of nitrogen and fungicide at VT timing) corn work done in Ontario from a caller in Manitoba — is the 22-23 bu/ac yield increase due to one input in particular or the combination? It’s not clear, but it seems to depend on the conditions each year.

 

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