New Study Helps Farmers More Accurately Determine Crop Nitrogen Needs

Farmers often face tough decisions about how much nitrogen to apply to corn, especially when spring weather disrupts pre-plant fertilizer plans. It’s a critical decision: too little nitrogen can limit crop yield and reduce profits, while too much nitrogen reduces economic returns on the fertilizer and can lead to environmental degradation, without increasing yield. 

New University of Minnesota research, recently published in the Soil Science Society of America Journal, significantly improves a tool that farmers can use to guide these decisions.