Oswald No-Till Farm Cleghorn, IA | On NH3,
It is our preferred source of N for a number of reasons. My Dad remembers going to ammonia meetings back in the late 1950's-1960's and the optimums discussed at those meetings are still the same though we stretch into fall application as part of strip till and earlier corn planting than in years past.
1- N is at depth. In the sometimes dry western corn belt, this is a good thing. In 2007, my sidedress liquid N plots were 20 bu/ac less than fall+ planter 20#. Rain stopped right after sidedressing. and the corn suffered.
2- N is banded..... a good thing.... concentrated in less soil volume. Unlike sprayed on 28% or broadcast urea which is a horizontal band.
3- Concentrated form of N, less gallons handled.
4- Some suggest ammonium form better for corn. (Charles Tai, Purdue, 1980's I think)
5 "Here" pipelines and tankers handle most of it.
6- Have my own toolbars and controllers (can be used for both liquid or ammonia, strip or sidedress).
7- Manly way to farm (big tractors, lots of iron, dangerous)
8- Believe that compaction (runway construction etc) is mostly a myth. Tillage is harder on the soil than ammonia.
9- liming behind ammonia not that much worse. Ammonium sulfate is worse I believe. Talk to a soil chemist.
Cons:
1- Manly way to farm (big tractors, lots of iron, dangerous)
2- Theft
3- Environmentalists target ammonia tanks in their advertising
4- requires soil incorporation (tillage via knife)
5- control equipment is expensive
6- gassing can burn emerged crop if done improperly
In summary, we (Dad and I) like AA and hope to keep using it as the primary N source on our farm. I think the benefits outweigh the negatives and believe that our yields would be somewhat lower (on average over the years) and our costs would be higher if we had to switch to urea or liquids. We hope that the regulators and nitrogen production companies don't take it away.
Tom |
Why do you choose to or not to use anhydrous?
