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•Watershed and Flood Control
•Groundwater
_____- Keys to Clean Water
•Cost-Share
•Conservation Trees
•Regulations to Protect Soil and
Water
 We
All Hold the Key To Clean Water
Agricultural Best Management Practices:
Fertilizer Rate and Expected Yield
How much nitrogen fertilizer should a farmer apply to a corn
crop? Corn’s total nitrogen requirement is related to yield.
Establishing a realistic yield expectation is important to good
nutrient management and preventing nitrate contamination of groundwater.
To calculate a realistic expected yield, the University of Nebraska
recommends this method:
1. Use the average of the five most recent crop yields.
2. Add 5 percent.
3. Omit any unusually bad years (hail damage, etc.)
This figure can be plugged into a University of Nebraska formula
to calculate the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed:
Fertilizer (lbs/A) = 35 + (1.2 x Expected Yield) minus credits
for other nitrogen available to crop (from irrigation water, soil,
organic matter, manure, and legumes)
To learn more about calculating nitrogen credits for irrigation
water, soil, manure and legumes, see the information elsewhere
on this Web site. But as this simplified version of the formula
shows, it is essential to start with a realistic expected yield.
More details:
Contact the Cooperative Extension or USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service
More information on-line:
[ Setting
Your Corn Yield Goal is Important (Extension NebGuide) ]
[ Fertilizer
Suggestions for Corn (Extension NebGuide) ]
[ University
of Nebraska IANR Extension Publications ]
Other Agricultural Best Management Practices:
[ Nitrogen Credits for Manure and Legume
Crops ]
[ Nitrogen Credits for Soil and Water
]
Developed for the Dutch Flats Groundwater Quality Project.
The project is partially funded by a Section 319 Clean Water Grant
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Nebraska
Department of Environmental Quality.
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