When can less nitrogen use deliver a winning corn yield?
Answer – When you’re Nick Preissler and the first-ever champion of the Nitrogen Management Pilot Class of the 2023 National Corn Yield Contest.
Preissler won the inaugural competition with a 312.9688 bushel-per-acre entry using 180 lbs. or less of actual nitrogen applied, reports the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).
Preissler, who farms with his dad, grandpa and uncle near Aurora, in east-central Nebraska, said he was excited to enter the contest and see whether his family’s current corn production practices were up to the challenge.
“It kind of fit right in line with our goals where we were trying to be as efficient as possible with our nitrogen,” Preissler told Dusty Weis, host of the NCGA comcast Inside The Grind, during an interview in March.
Level Playing Field
Agronomist Jim Isermann, who helped NCGA develop the framework for the new class of the NCGA national yield contest, said the association was interested in designing the category with a focus on input costs, environmental impact and sustainability.
In the process, he said the team putting the rules together for the new class worked hard to level the playing field for corn growers interested in participating – no easy task given the diversity of corn production practices across the U.S.
“We ended up with that 180 pounds, wanting to keep it as simple as we could,” Isermann said.
Growers participating in the new class can use no more than 180 pounds of N total for their contest entry, and there are some additional limitations regarding the total amount, timing and type of nitrogen applied, Isermann said.
“We’re looking at all the synthetics, manure applications, any compost, anything like that you might have applied,” he told Weis. “We also put some limitations on what that previous year could have been. So, for example, we’re not allowing alfalfa to be the crop ahead of the corn crop.”
Going into the inaugural contest competition last year, Preissler said he thought the yield contest requirements for N use were balanced and fair.
“From what we were already doing, we were kind of planning to start with the base rate below that,” Preissler said. “On my field, it was corn-on-corn, and it was still doable at the 180 pounds.”
While nitrogen rates today vary widely among U.S corn growers, some might find 180 pounds below average. A total use of 200 lbs. of N per acre for a 200-bushel corn crop is common, according to Iowa State University Extension.
A relatively new concept in N application rates is referred to by Iowa State as “maximum return to N.” An online tool called the Corn Nitrogen Rate Calculator is available to corn growers. It is available at http://cnrc.agron.iastate.edu/
Looking Ahead To The 2024 Contest
This year, Preissler is entering the nitrogen management class of the yield contest again and is making some adjustments in how he manages his corn.
“I think one big one is we’re going to cut back on our base rate for this year, so we’re going to start out with a little bit less nitrogen upfront and then wait and see if we need to have any additional passes after that,” Preissler said in early spring.
He added that one of the main things he learned from participating in the contest last year is just how challenging nitrogen management can be.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into play in how much nitrogen is available each year – utilizing the technology to be able to read the crop throughout the growing season and letting it tell you what it needs instead of trying to guess that ahead of time,” Preissler said.
Farmers interested in participating in the “J. nitrogen management class” of the yield contest for 2024, still have time to register. The J class is open to the first 100 corn grower registrants from these nine states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The final deadline entry period is open until Aug. 14. More contest details are available at https://ncga.com/get-involved/national-corn-yield-contest
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