Public-Private Partnering for Improving Performance of Corn Nitrogen Fertilization Tools.

Nitrogen fertilization for corn production is complicated by soil and weather variability, yet such has far-reaching economic and environmental implications. To address this challenge, alternative N management strategies have been explored extensively in recent years for determining the most consistently-correct pre-season and/or in-season N fertilizer rate.  Existing as well as new technologies and decision tools are being employed to obtain and process information that facilitates those strategies. The objective of this research is to obtain over a range of soil and weather environments soil and plant measurements to evaluate the economic and environmental performance of corn N decision tools.  The side-by-side comparisons of these decision tools will improve understanding of their strengths and limitations. Research to address this objective has been initiated in a partnership between eight US Midwest University Land Grant Institutions and DuPont Pioneer.  Research using standardized protocol was conducted at 16 sites in 2014. The presentation will provide an overview of the project, anticipated outcomes, and some preliminary results of the 2014 growing season.