The Agronomists, Ep 64: Tom Bruulsema, John Heard, and Peter Johnson on nitrogen efficiency products

Here’s to hoping everyone had a great Easter weekend! We are excited to be back with another episode of The Agronomists.

We’re hitting the ground running with this week’s topic: nitrogen management. More specifically, this episode is focused on managing N losses and products that potentially help reduce some of those losses.

This week’s panel includes host Lyndsey Smith, along with Dr. Tom Bruulsema with INPI Canada, John Heard with Manitoba Agriculture, and RealAgriculture’s Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson.

Catch a new episode of The Agronomists every Monday night at 8 pm E!

SUMMARY:

• Catching up with the panel first and foremost about the moisture – more specifically, snow – that they are seeing in their area
• Making sense of, and breaking down, the complexity of the possible ways we can lose nitrogen, whether it’s through the tile or surface runoff, or or denitrification or leaching
• As nitrogen moves through it’s forms, does it become more susceptible to loss?
• What issues are most common on different types of soils
• How different seasons throughout the year can affect possible loss
• Soil temperature, at what point do you stand to lose the most nitrogen
• Can some management practices be just a beneficial, or close to, as products?
• Is there a product to add to the dairy slurry to help reduce losses wide to grassland?
• Do carbon based products actually prevent nitrogen loss from manure? Are they nitrogen loss stabilizers? Or did they just tie up the free ammonia enough that we don’t smell it anymore?
• Despite the numerous ways we can lose nitrogen, products will usually target one of two ways to prevent loss: reduce denitrification or reduce volatilization
• If you use a nitrification inhibitor with my y-drops and it rains, did you waste your money?
• What to keep in mind in regards to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Does the the presence, or absence, of surface residue have an impact on the rate of loss? Do we know?
• What happens if corn doesn’t use all of the nitrogen? If we reduce our N2O for the summer? Do we just lose it after harvest? Or do we reduce our rate with the use of inhibitors?
• What are some of the best products to use in Manitoba specifically?
• Looking at specific questions from our audience in Ontario regarding corn and what they should focus on protecting
• Can we tie up nitrogen with cover crops? Yes, we can.
• Want to see all of the slides? Download the slide deck, here.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS | All Podcasts