Nitrogen Management

One of my favorite topics is on tonight.  No-till Farmer talks about growing a corn crop without nitrogen.  The title is misleading because the producer used cover crops as his nitrogen source instead of fertilizer nitrogen.  The fact that he grew 190 bushel corn using cover crops is certainly remarkable.  There is no listing of yields where nitrogen was added.  There is no mention of soil N tests or stalk N tests.  I would like to see data when something like this is published.

My friend Kelly Robertson also discussed the cropping season as relates to nitrogen on his Blog.  Kelly got his best results on sidedressing.  Kelly does a simple cost analysis that shows the value of using the correct nitrogen management. 

No system will work perfectly in any given year, but some N testing, some tissue testing, and taking some time to look at the results would be worth the time spent.  All this proves is that nitrogen management is not as easy as it looks, and that there is not a one size fits all plan that is foolproof.