Early season weather events, like heavy June rains, raised concerns about nitrogen loss across parts of the Corn Belt. Now, as the crop moves toward harvest, researchers are getting a clearer picture of what it means for yields. University of Illinois Extension soil fertility specialist John Jones says the effects vary widely from field to field, but widespread disaster is unlikely.
“That’s not necessarily saying that that nitrogen was all lost, but it certainly means that the amount immediately available that we could measure wasn’t there for when the crop may have needed it. Kind of think around that V6 to V10 time frame. I don’t think it’s a reason to cause alarm. And I say that because in scenarios where we were applying zero to 50 to 100 pounds of nitrogen, I would say those are certainly lower than rates that most farmers are applying through their single or split applications.”
Jones says growers had limited opportunities to respond once conditions improved…tape
“We can’t predict necessarily that we’re going to have these very strong saturated conditions that last. And we really had a pretty short window, unfortunately, to make a rescue treatment. If you think about when things started to really dry out into kind of early to mid-July, even later in some cases, you’re really pushing it on whether you’re going to get a return on that nitrogen. And it’s not going to be a lot, 20 to 30 pounds of N. Maybe it’s with a tallboy sprayer, or maybe it’s flown on with the airplane. Sometimes there’s real risk if you see an ROI to those rescue, quote unquote, rescue treatments.”
He says some yield impact from nitrogen loss is becoming apparent in research trials…tape
“So I’m not saying there’s a cause for large alarm, but I think the variability and the amount of loss that we have seen so far is probably going to lead to some yield numbers that are a little bit lower because of specifically nitrogen loss and the lack of availability.”
Even so, he says the statewide crop remains in relatively good shape. The bigger story may be the variability from one field to the next.
“Yeah, I think if we use the on average term, I don’t necessarily think that there were these massive events that are going to be pushing major N losses, but the variability is probably what’s going to catch some of these averages and bring them down a few points or a few percentages. And so that I wouldn’t be very surprised on based on how the crop has been developing so far, especially how fast some of the firing has happened.”