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How many of us should have used a nitrogen "stabalizer"? And how to figure ROI...
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Austin
Posted 7/30/2015 08:45 (#4707412)
Subject: How many of us should have used a nitrogen "stabalizer"? And how to figure ROI...



Garrett County, MD
So there are obviously two camps here... those that buy into it and those that don't. For this discussion I'm talking about stabilizing side dressed N applied to corn. To protect from volatilization and denitrification.

This has been a very wet year so far for us, and for many of you. How many of you are seeing wide spread N deficiency to any degree of severity on the well drained soils?

We use chicken litter, starter on the planter and a significant portion of our N is put down sidedress with UAN. Roughly 50% of the lbs applied is sidedressed with drop nozzles.

We don't normally see N deficiency. So I was scouting a little yesterday and noticed a pretty significant pattern of some N deficiency showing up on the lower leaves of the corn plants. Not just in the wetter areas but in the well drained soils as well. Some areas better and some areas worse but on average its on the bottom two leaves. I'll call it only on the first "full sized" leaf. Our corn ranges from just finished pollinating (successfully, thank god) to milk stage. Hopefully this new thing we're getting called "sunshine" helps the roots explore more soil and we can pick up some more N to get us through. I'm not sure how fast it will progress and how much it will hurt us. I'm planning on marking off some plants in a few fields and going back to them every couple days to learn about how it will progress. I may even hand apply some extra N to some plants at this point and see what difference it makes to the final ear.

So I was talking to an agronomist from one of the seed companies and he said we should consider using a product called instinct( that's what they sell). Supposedly it protects against volatilization and denitrification. I usually stock some agrotain regular to throw in the sprayer (drop nozzle applied) in case there is no rain in the forecast when side dressing. I know it only protects against volitilization. We didn't use it this year because we basically sidedressed while it was raining...

So I'm wondering with as much rain as we all have gotten (most of us) how much do you think the instinct would have helped? Do you think it would have prevented what were seeing? Do you think what I am describing will hurt us significantly?

Then the big question... How do you figure if you should use it every year? Obviously you don't know how much it will rain after you side dress. I guess assuming it works, it is an insurance policy at best. Apparently is costs about 7 bucks an acre, so say 2 bushels of corn. Here we don't usually see N deficiency as I said, so lets say we use it every year and it costs us 2 bushels. One in 5 years we have higher than usual rainfall and it helps us. Is it safe to figure it saves 10 bushels? If it does that then it is a break even. I'm really guessing on the amount of corn it will save and how frequently we will get the above average rainfall.

So how do YOU figure on YOUR farm if you should use a product like this? How do you figure the ROI? Do any of you feel you make good money off of a product like this?

The next step then, and this is a scary one to me, is if it works do you decrease the total N applied? Lots of ways to look at it...

Your thoughts?




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