Nitrogen management made easy

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If you grow any agricultural crop, decreasing costs, reducing labor, and increasing payment should be a primary goal. Some will be quick to point out that being a good steward of the environment should be essential and rarely debated when at the root of the issue. Precision agriculture techniques are more and more commonplace. GPS and computer technology is everywhere. It is a logical and inevitable progression.

A DSquared Development spectrometer (aka ProSpectra), akin to a common digital camera, can be calibrated to directly read out properties such as the moisture and protein content of whole wheat kernels as they are being harvested or transferred from one place to another. Agronomists have told us that there is a direct relationship between yield, protein content, and the amount of nitrogen taken from the soil to produce it. Accordingly, if you want to target 10.3% protein soft white wheat you want to adjust application of fertilizer to hit that target. Weather will cause substantial variance in the over all scheme of things but the practice of top dressing a field during growth is becoming more common. Some will find they use more fertilizer and some less than their current application rate but they can be sure they have optimized their yield at a target quality. One grower that understands nitrogen management simply put it; Each reading from the sensor is like a soil test and with a reading every 2 seconds during harvest, that's a lot of tests.

But even if you don't utilize the protein data to better apply fertilizer, you can start to segregate your harvest into different categories. Millers and bakers want specific qualities from their flour, and blenders are always needing a known product. Gone should be the days of dumping all your grain into one place, the need for Identity Preservation is here.

If you know the quality of your product, you can demand your price.

Every field has variation, so varying the application rate of nitrogen makes sense. Soil fertility and water limit yield and are indicated by a critical protein value. Agronomists say protein changes linearly with applied nitrogen. For example, DNS in dry land conditions requires about 15 lbs N per acre to change protein by 1%.

Maximize yield based on the critical protein % of your variety. Adjust the nitrogen rate up or down based on previously harvested protein levels areas lower in protein than the critical level need additional nitrogen to fulfill yield potential. areas with protein above the critcial level should receive less nitrogen to reduce waste and production cost.     Check the downloads page for our free nitrogen management program. This calculates income based on nitrogen uptake rates for yield and protein concentration.