Nitrogen Management to Maximize Efficiency and Profit
- ExactEmerge Planter
- Active Implement Guidance
- John Deere Variable Rate Application Controllers
- 360 Bandits
- 360 Y-Drops
- 360 Fertilizer Tanks
Hastings Test Plot
Overview: The west half of the plot was planted with a John Deere ExactEmerge 1725 CCS mounted vertical fold planter which used the 360 Yield Center Management system. The customer planted the east half. The field had manure applied in prior years. The field was growing wheat when planted as a cover crop and corn was chopped for silage the prior year. Other than the Nitrogen applications, both sides were managed in a similar fashion.
Previous Crop: Corn for silage and growing wheat as a cover crop at planting.
Irrigated
Tillage Practice: No-Till
Target Population: 34,000 seeds per acre
Customer side (west side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
- Side Dress Application: 63.5 gallons of 32-0-0
John Deere / 360 Yield Center (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
32-0-0 at Planting with 360 Bandits
32-0-0 applied between V10 and VT (pre tassel)
- Y-dropped on at 22.9 gallons per acre with John Deere R4038
Observations / Potential changes if we were to duplicate this in the future:
- On 23.3 less pounds of total actual Nitrogen we are producing 22 more bushels (estimated bushels)
- Nitrogen Efficiency was 0.796 # applied per bushel versus 0.917#
- With less nitrogen applied, we achieved an additional $17.40 per acre profit
Lexington Test Plot
Overview: The east half of the plot was planted with an ExactEmerge and used the 360 Yield Center Management system. The customer planted the west half with a 1720 CCS planter with eSet seed meters. The field has had manure applied. The west part of the field was strip-tilled to apply fertilizer and create a seedbed. Other than the Nitrogen applications, both sides were managed in a similar fashion.
Irrigated
Previous Crop: Corn
Tillage Practice: Strip-Till
Target Population: 34,000 seeds per acre
Customer side (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
Spring Strip-Till
Starter at Planting
Top Dress Dry
- 100# of actual N (46-0-0)
John Deere / 360 Yield Center (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
32-0-0 at Planting with 360 Bandits
Starter applied at planting
32-0-0 applied between V10 and VT (pre tassel)
- Y-dropped on at 27.49 gallons per acre with Hagie STS12
Observations / Potential changes if we were to duplicate this plot in the future:
- We believe the entire plot should have been strip-tilled to make it more uniform between the two sides, but not apply the 32-0-0 to the east half. We believe the effect of this may be a reduced stand.
- Yielded 7 more bushles per acre on 2.7 # less Nitrogen
- Nitrogen efficiency was very good on both sides of the plot with 0.590 # per bushel on the 360 side compared to 0.614 # of applied nitrogen. Both were very low due to previous application of manure.
- The 360 Yield Center system achieved $17.81 per acre additional profit.
Smith Center Test Plot
Overview: The field is broke up into five different sections with two larger sections planted with the ExactEmerge planter which used the 360 Yield Management system. The customer planted the other three sections of the field and both having similar amounts of the area of the field. The west section against the creek alternated planting between the customers planter and the JD/360 system. Other than the Nitrogen applications, both sides were managed in similar fashion.
Dryland
Previous Crop: Wheat
Tillage Practice: No-Till
Target Population: 24,000 seeds per acre on the bottom ground - 21,000 seeds per acre on upland ground
Customer side (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
Spring applied through the TAPPS System
- 149# Actual N - NH3
- 6.86 Gallons - 10-34-0
- 2.94 Gallons - 12-0-0-26
At Planting:
- 2 Gallons of 10-34-0
- 2 Gallons 32-0-0
- 1 Quart Micro 500
John Deere / 360 Yield Center (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
At Planting with 360 Bandits
- 25 Gallons - 32-0-0
- 7 Gallons - 10-34-0
- 3 Gallons - 12-0-0-26
At Planting in row
- 10-34-0 - 2 Gallons
- 32-0-0 - 2 Gallons
- 1 Quart Micro 500
32-0-0 applied between V10 and VT (pre tassel)
- Y-dropped on at 10 Gallons per acre with Hagie STS12 - This was done on 6 passes of 24 rows each. Remainder of the field did not receive this treatment
Observations / Potential changes if we were to duplicate this plot in the future:
- Both sides achieved very high yields and very good nitrogen efficiency
- Due to the amount of Nitrogen in the soil portions of the field on the 360 YC side did not receive additional late season Nitrogen as part of our test.
- Yields –
- Customer’s System • Bottom – 220 Bu/A – 0.652 # of N/Bu
- Upland – 206 Bu/A – 0.697 # of N/Bu
- 360 Yield Center
- Bottom – with Y Drop Application – 228 Bu/A – 0.638 # of N/Bu - $4.26 additional profit
- Upland – with Y Drop Application – 219 Bu/A – 0.664 # of N/Bu - $21.76 additional profit
- Bottom – with no additional N – 232 Bu/A – 0.474 # of N/Bu - $18.26 additional profit
- Upland – with no additional N – 189 Bu/A – 0.582 # of N/Bu - $83.24 loss in profit due to exceptional yield on customer’s portion.
- Should have applied additional late season N on the upland ground.
Beatrice Test Plot
Overview: 160 acres of dryland. Dry fertilizer was applied to the whole field last fall with a John Deere 2510S strip-till rig. The west half, end rows and one pass next to the east road was planted by the customer with his 1775NT with an Rx with an average of 27,000. The east 70 acres were planted with the 1775NT ExactEmerge at a flat rate of 27,000. Other than the Nitrogen applications, both side were managed in a similar fashion.
Dryland
Previous Crop: Soybeans
Tillage Practice: 27,000 seeds per acre
Customer Side (west side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
Strip-Till - Fall
Starter at Planting
- 3.2 Gallons of Impulse Starter
Side Dress Nitrogen
John Deere / 360 Yield Center (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
Strip-Till - Fall
Starter at Planting
- 3.2 Gallons of Impulse Starter
28-0-0 at Planting with 360 Bandits
28-0-0 applied between V10 and VT (pre tassel)
- Y-dropped on at 19 Gallons per acre with Hagie STS12
Observations / Potential changes if we were to duplicate this plot in the future:
- ExactEmerge visibly achieved a better stand of corn
- Would like to remove the Urea from the Fall Strip-Till operation and apply more liquid N in the spring with the planter to see if we can increase our Nitrogen efficiency per bushel.
- Yield was the same between both sides of the plot (216 vs 215) on 38.7 less pounds of N
- Nitrogen Efficiency was 0.806 # of N with the 360 System vs. 0.982 # of N with the customer's system
- Our profitability was $7.60 lower than the customers. We believe the difference in profitability could be negated in cost of application.
Hebron Test Plot
Overview: The west half of the plot was planted with an ExactEmerge planter and used the 360 Yield Center Management system. The east half utilized spring applied NH3 and the customer planted it with their planter. Other than the Nitrogen applications, both sides were managed in similar fashion.
Irrigated
Previous Crop: Soybeans
Tillage Practice: No-Till
Target Populations: 34,300 seeds per acre
Customer Side (west side) of the plot fertilized applications:
NH3 - Spring Applied - Knife
Dry Application
Starter at Planting
- 6.5 Gallons of 10-34-0 Starter
Applied with Pre Emerge herbicide
John Deere / 360 Yield Center (east side) of the plot fertilizer applications:
Dry Application
Applied with Pre Emerge herbicide
Starter at Planting
- 5 Gallons of 10-34-0 Starter
32-0-0 at Planting with 360 Bandits
32-0-0 applied between V10 and VT (pre tassel)
- Y-dropped on at 20 and 25 Gallons (for comparison) per acre with Hagie STS12
Observations / Potential changes if we were to duplicate in this plot in the future:
- When making the Nitrogen application recommendations prior to Y Drop, we missed the 10 gallons of 32-0-0 that was applied with herbicide. Ideally we would have reduced our Y-Drop application by 10 gallons and applied less Nitrogen than the customer.
- Tractor broke down on the JD/360 YC side at the beginning of planting which resulted in being 4 days later than the east sides planting date. We feel this had some impact on the yield.
- Achieved a 5 bu/acre additional yield with a Nitrogen Efficiency of 1.158 # of N per bushel which is higher than the customer's N Efficiency of 1.1010# of N per bushel.
- Due to the extra GPA of 32-0-0 applied, our profitability was $10.70 lower than the customers.
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