Nitrogen

A team of Illinois State University researchers are evaluating the impact of cover crops on carbon sequestration and organic matter.

When deciding how much nitrogen fertilizer to apply, farmers have options. The standard tool for the Midwest — the maximum return to nitrogen calculator — offers a static recommendation. It is based on hundreds of field trials, but doesn’t vary much year to year.

Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers transformed agriculture as we know it during the Green Revolution, catapulting crop yields and food security to new heights

When Mike Denton and his team from Hefty Seed Co. in Princeton get to their booth at the Greater Peoria Farm Show, one product in particular will be drawing the interest of farmers, given the uncertainties with nitrogen fertilizer going into 2022.

Poorly drained agricultural soils emit enough of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide that the resulting climate change effects could far exceed the benefits of using the same soils as a means of sequestering carbon, according to a recently published scientific study.

Progress, current and future challenges were highlighted in the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy biennial report. Details of the report were unveiled during the NLRS Partnership Conference.

Minnesota agronomist Amy Robak describes budding carbon markets as the wild west. And she’s not the only one who sees it that way.

The way Paul Taylor looks at it, using cover crops is a lot like walking.

Nitrogen provides the fuel to feed the corn plant’s engine and meeting that need efficiently is at the forefront, particularly this year with price spikes and supply concerns.

High fertilizer prices, supply shortages and the weather converged this fall as farmers turn their focus toward nutrient management plans for the 2022 crop.

The Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council offers recommendations for best management practices based upon nine years of NREC-funded research. The research was conducted — and will continue to be conducted — on actual farmers’ tile-drained fields.

Multiyear field trials in Douglas County were conducted to find answers to the complexities of nitrogen management in tile-drained fields.

Which one deserves special treatment? And if so, what should that special treatment look like? Those questions, on a corn field level, were among the questions that a corn hybrid nitrogen study sought to answer at the Bayer Crop Science Learning Center at Monmouth.

Certified Grower Training for handling anhydrous ammonia is now available on the Illinois Department of Agriculture website.