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| Graintrader, I do want to say I always respect your thoughts and enjoy reading what you put on here....it seems to always spark new thoughts for me to consider. Thank you.
Coup...thanks for posting a much clear picture with some great examples of what I was trying to say but maybe not illustrating that well. Thank you as well.
My point from the beginning was if you cut your N rate by 20/40 units bc you feel like you have been over applying, I get that thought or if you change your timing up a little and feel you can cut back on some, I get that too....however if it is just a price decision I get conflicted since N is one of the major nutrients that we have to have to feed our corn crop. In what is an economically challenging environment, if I had to cut something out the N would not be the place I would start. With that said the best example I have is here in Central In last year we made the decision to come back with 45 more units of N on some fields bc they were short on N from the big rains. These fields already had full rates of our "planned" N program on at sidedress. Neighboring farms and growers chose not to do it stating "it's a waste of $, I'll collect crop insurance, etc." At the time, the price of corn was in that $4.30 to $4.40 range (mid july). The 45 units of N was an extra investment or expense (depending how some would look at it) of $22.50/ac plus let's say $10 app cost....total of $32.50/ac. Our fields next to ones who decided against that strategy, yielded anywhere from 20 to 50 bu more per acre according to what the neighbors shared their yields were. At $3.50 corn x 20 bu = $70/ac more gross rev (net of $37.50). In addition, we are also gaining on our crop insurance APH by having higher yield fields vs letting them go. I know that is a unique, and not every year example, but one that was real from this past year. Not saying it's the only strategy, but to me it makes sense to at least give the crop the chance it needs to be successful, and if you starve it that is not happening. | |
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Thinking of skipping N with Herbicide
