After planting, corn growers must continue making critical decisions to ensure a good harvest. One key decision is how to manage their sidedress nitrogen application in a way that maximizes N use efficiency and increases yields.

This is extremely important given today’s market. According to USDA’s latest “World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report” (July 2019), the season-average farm price for corn is $3.70 per bushel.

During periods of low or declining commodity prices, it is critical to increase yields to lower the cost of production per bushel. 

Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network spoke with Scott Lay this week about making sidedress applications pay off with Accomplish LM. 

Iowa Agribusiness: Tell me about Accomplish LM.

Lay: Accomplish is a product we've had on the market for several years. It's a fertilizer biocatalyst, which is a product that makes nutrients more available to the plant. It mineralizes nutrients that may otherwise be bound up in the soil, creating a better outcome or yield result in the crop. 

Iowa Agribusiness:Obviously farmers are going to have to put on more nitrogen this year. So this is a supplement to go along with that?

Scott Lay, Area Sales Manager with Loveland Products, was recently in Illinois to discuss sidedressing with RFD IL Radio Network. Below is an excerpt from their conversation about getting the full value out of a sidedress nitrogen application.

RFD: Given the wet weather we had earlier this year, is there a question of how much nitrogen growers need to put on their fields?

Lay: The number of additional units of nitrogen needed–if any–is based on the amount of precipitation and type of environmental conditions growers have experienced since planting. Today, we have a number of nitrogen modeling tools that we can use to help make this determination, which makes it more of an exact science than it has been in the past.

Now that growers finally have their corn and soybeans planted, many are considering adding more nitrogen to their fields. Loveland Products' Scott Lay recently spoke with Hoosier Ag Today about why sidedressing supplemental nitrogen is a positive practice.

Hoosier Ag Today: Our heavy spring rains in Indiana have reduced a lot of the nitrogen that would normally be available for a corn crop this year. Scott Lay, with Loveland Products, says that sidedressing nitrogen is a practice that makes economic and agronomic sense this year.

Lay: Any time you can more closely align your nitrogen application with when the corn plant needs it, you're able to get a better result. In addition, a supplemental application of nitrogen in season is more environmentally sound, because less nitrogen is prone to loss. Given some of the weather this spring, I think it's important that we take a good, hard look at how much nitrogen is available to the growing corn plant, and then ascertain how much nitrogen may be needed.

Although it’s tempting for growers to put out all of their nitrogen early in the season when it’s easier to apply, splitting the application into a pre-plant and a sidedress application can be an effective way to ensure that the corn crop has enough nitrogen to meet its needs at peak demand. This can be especially beneficial in wet years where leaching of pre-plant nitrogen is likely to have occurred.

Below we answer three common questions on corn nitrogen demands and discuss ways to make the most efficient sidedress application.

When does a corn crop need most of its nitrogen?

Growers often want to put nitrogen out early in the season—when it is easier to apply—to get their corn crop “up and going.” However, actual peak nitrogen demand for corn is right before tassel (V10 – V14), continuing on through grain fill. Making a sidedress nitrogen application can be an effective way of making sure the crop has the nitrogen it needs when demand is greatest.

With cool temperatures and wet conditions this spring, many growers will experience loss of pre-plant nitrogen, making sidedress nitrogen an especially important application this season.

We all know the importance of nitrogen in producing a high-yielding corn crop, but it is easy to forget or even ignore that the timing of an nitrogen application can be the key to maximizing its benefits.

Nitrogen applied pre-plant can be susceptible to loss through volatility, denitrification or leaching, which means it may not be available for use by the crop at critical stages. Peak demand for nitrgen in a corn crop comes between V10-V14 (right before tasseling) and, although the demand measured in pounds of nitrogen taken up per day may slow, N is still a critical factor in grain fill.

“Sidedressing Nitrogen for Maximum Yields” is now available to watch on demand. Join Brian Cornelious of Agricen and Chris Berry of Dow AgroSciences as they explain how Accomplish® LM and Instinct® II nitrogen stabilizer can be used as complementary technologies to optimize corn yield and profit potential in a sidedress program.

The right timing and the right technologies can optimize a sidedress nitrogen application and maximize corn yield.

Growers can use the fertilizer biocatalyst Accomplish LM as part of their program to help ensure that sidedress N and other nutrients in the soil are available in the most efficient form for plant uptake and utilization.

Learn more about using Accomplish LM in a sidedress program and how to sidedress nitrogen for maximum corn yields by downloading a complimentary digital copy of the sidedress booklet today.