MONROE — An Oct. 16 field day at a farm north of Monroe aims to answer a recurring question: “How much nitrogen does it take to grow a corn crop?”
According to the Green County UW Extension office, every year farmers run the risk of losing nitrogen to the atmosphere or leaching away into groundwater. The Green County farm, located to the northwest of Monroe off of Wis. 81 — between County N and Aebly Road — has a nitrogen plot this year.
The county will start to gather data and answer “what’s the most economical amount of nitrogen to put on based on the cost of nitrogen and the anticipated corn price.” This is to make sure that farmers are getting their optimal return on investment.
There are six rates of nitrogen applied in triplicate within the plot. The target application rates were zero, 40, 80, 120, 160 and 200 units of nitrogen. The field day programming for the plot pre-harvest is from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Oct. 16. The site will be marked ahead of the field day and left out until harvest. Access to the site is from the southern portion of Aebly Road — plug in N3193 Aebly Road into a mapping app and go farther north until the signs on the west side of the road.
The field day will also have cover crop discussion and samples. There will be several infiltration demonstrations shown to help producers understand the importance of having precipitation go into the soil and not run off.
The need for a county nitrogen plot has come out of a recent groundwater sampling project in the county. There are areas where the trends are increasing for nitrate concentrations in groundwater. Nitrates in groundwater comes from a variety of places, but over-application of commercial nitrogen is thought to be the largest culprit. Nitrogen plots are meant to help farmers understand and see that applying more nitrogen isn’t always better, it comes at more than a financial cost — the environmental cost is much harder to put a price tag on.
The Nitrogen Plot is a collaboration between Darren Luchsinger (the farm renter), Green County Land and Water Conservation Department (LWCD), Green County UW Extension, and UW Nutrient and Pest Management Program. There will be more information on yield results and the maximum return to nitrogen rate (MRTN) to come in winter programs. The event is also listed in the Wisconsin Science Festival directory — a statewide effort to showcase agriculture in science this year.
For more information, contact Tonya Gratz with the Green County LWCD via email Tonya.Gratz@wi.nacdnet.net or at 608-325-4195 ext. 121.
