Big Crowd at Nitrogen Smart Program

This is a picture of all the farmers in Faribault Thursday for the Nitrogen Smart Program. Nitrogen Smart is a funded by the Minnesota Corn Growers and Minnesota Agriculture Water Resources Center. Nitrogen Smart is a presentation on the latest research results on how to better use Nitrogen. It is presented by specialists with the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Nitrogen is a macronutrient required to produce a corn crop.

The proper use of nitrogen is important from an economic and environmental  perspective. Nitrogen is expensive and farmers cannot afford to pay for it and not have it available to the corn during the growing season. In addition nitrogen can be leached through the soil and end up in tile lines and ground water. That is an environmental concern.

There are a number of forms of nitrogen that farmers can apply, anhydrous ammonia, liquid nitrogen or dry urea. All these forms of nitrogen are unavailable to corn plants. Microorganisms in the soil convert all these forms of nitrogen into nitrate nitrogen that is water soluble. These microorganisms are active when soil temperatures are above 50 degrees. The corn plant takes up moisture from the soil along with the nitrogen. Here is the problem, when the nitrogen is in the water soluble form available to the corn, it can also be lost into tile lines during heavy rains.

There are a lot of practices we know about to minimize nitrogen loss such as amount and timing of applications and nitrogen stabilizers. New ways and products are being developed and that is why so many farmers are attending the Nitrogen Smart sessions. By the way, much of the university research and the Nitrogen smart programs getting the information to farmers  is funded by the Minnesota Corn Growers using check-off dollars.

Who pays into the corn check-off? Farmers! Yes, farmers are funding research to be more economical and environmentally responsible!  So many times in the media farmers are characterized as only concerned about being profitable. Here is another example of doing the right thing environmentally is also the most economical or profitable.