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| I’m in iowa, organic matter 4-6% on our fields. We do a lot to fight erosion & keep our soils in “great health”…. Cover crops, no till, lime, micros, tile & terrace, manure & compost for fertilizer & rotating hay/alfalfa, etc.
Many neighbors are the opposite in all regards. Huge wash outs or constant. They till like crazy, no cover crops & it’s anhydrous every time for corn.
We have done mainly treated urea or ESN. ESN has to have some downside to polymer left behind I would imagine. Very little anhydrous use. It costs a bit more on average. Maybe not so much with ESN as we are one pass & happy with N levels later in summer.
Now - the countless neighbors that do have the erosion & issues also don’t do all the other things we do so I can’t say it’s the anhydrous & there’s still a lot of debate with anhydrous vs urea vs even liquid for soil health, erosion, etc.
Obviously the context of what I see has a lot of different variables. Here’s my ?…. Do you feel or is there evidence that one form of N is better on soil health than others? Microbes, PH, hardening of soil, erosion, earth worms, etc? I do believe they all have their +/-‘s. I’m taking cost & application out of this & purely talking what’s best for crops, soil, long term use, etc. In a perfect world I’d rely on just legumes/bacteria to fix nitrogen & we do have some of that happening. But we have to supplement some beyond that in most cases. Lots of salesman or those that use xyz biased towards what they like or sell. What do you all believe is the best for soil, etc between the 3?
Edited by BradJJ 4/27/2025 19:40
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Anhydrous vs Urea- soil health - short term/long term ?
