Sidedressing Manure into Newly Planted and Emerged Corn

May 24, 2018

By Glen Arnold

Ohio State University Extension has conducted manure research on growing crops for several years in an effort to make better use of the available nutrients. Incorporating manure into growing corn can boost crop yields, reduce nutrient losses, and give livestock producers or commercial manure applicators another window of time to apply manure to farm fields.

Our research started with using manure tankers modified with narrow wheels and in recent years progressed to using drag hoses on emerged corn. We now feel confident that liquid livestock manure can be surface applied or incorporated into corn from the day of planting to the V4 stage of development.

In Darke County, Harrod Farms has used a drag hose to apply swine finishing manure to their corn fields in the 2014-2017 growing seasons with great success. The corn was generally at the V3 stage of growth when the manure was incorporated as a sidedress.

Harrod Farms Four-Year Manure Incorporation Drag Hose Corn Plots
Year	Swine Finishing Manure	28% UAN
2017	165	145
2016	222	216
2015	154	121
2014	204	204
Average yield: bu/acre	186.3	171.5

The manure treatments have averaged 14.8 bushels per acre more than the 28% UAN treatments. The Harrods incorporated approximately 6,500 gallons of swine finishing manure per acre to provide all the sidedress nitrogen needed. The fields received 10 gallons per acre of 28% UAN as row starter. Harrod Farms plants their corn fields at an angle to make the drag hose work best for the commercial manure applicator.

In addition to providing the sidedress nitrogen, the manure application also provided almost precisely the amount of phosphorus and potash needed for both the corn crop and the soybean crop the following season.

Source: osu.edu

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.