Higher Nitrogen Fertilizer Prices Affect Com Fertility Management
Douglas Beegle
Professor Of
Agronomy
Extension Soil
Fertility Specialist
Penn State
In talking to fertilizer dealers
from across Pennsylvania over
the last couple of months, it
appears that nitrogen fertilizer
prices could be as much as 40
percent higher this year.
There arc several reasons for
this price increase, which have
been building for some time.
World supplies of nitrogen
fertilizer have been greatly
reduced in recent years. The
Soviet Union had been a major
supplier of ammonia to the U.S.
fertilizer market, but with the
breakup of that country and
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reorganizatipn in the eastern
European countries, this source
is no longer there.
Also, one of the major plants
in the U.S. was shut down by an
explosion this past year. These
reductions in supply coupled
with an increase in worldwide
demand for nitrogen has
resulted in the price increases
that we arc now experiencing.
What do these increased
prices mean to nitrogen man
agement in 1995? There are
several factors to consider. As
nitrogen prices increase, the
economic optimum nitrogen
rate will decrease. However, at
current corn prices, this
increase in nitrogen prices only
reduces the economic optimum
nitrogen rate by 2 to 5 percent.
This is generally less than 10
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pounds of nitrogen per acre,
and considering that nitrogen
recommendations are usually
made in 20- to 30-pound-per
acre increments, I don’t see
recommendations changing
much.
The more important effect of
these higher prices will be in
forcing us to tighten our nitro
gen management to maximize,
the nitrogen use efficiency of
the com crop. First, make sure
that your nitrogen recommen
dations are appropriate. The
base recommendation for com
is 1 to 1.1 pounds of nitrogen
per bushel of expected yield.
Thus, one of the first places
to look at is your expected
yields. Expected yields used to
make recommendations should
be optimistic but realistic.
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Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 18, 1995—Page 31
Being overly optimistic about
yield expectations and thus fer
tilizing for unrealistic yields is
always costly, but especially so
at high nitrogen prices.
Expected yields are best esti
mated from your records of past
yield performance.
Another area to look at are
credits for nitrogen in manure
and previous legume crops.
Remember that this nitrogen is
worth more now, too. Analyz
ing manure for nitrogen and
calibrating manure spreaders to
uniformly apply a known rate
of manure are important steps
toward realizing the full value
of the nitrogen in manure.
Where it is appropriate, greater
value can be realized from
manure by incorporating it as
soon as possible after
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application.
Nitrogen recovery from
manure by the following com
crop is SO to 75 percent if the
manure is incorporated imme
diately. This recovery drops to
IS to 20,percent if the manure is
not incorporated. For a 20-ton
per-acre application of dairy
manure, this is a difference of
more than 60 pounds of avail
able nitrogen per acre.
Timing of nitrogen applica
tion may also improve nitrogen
use efficiency by your com
crop. Applying the nitrogen as
close to the time of crop need as
possible reduces the chances of
nitrogen loss. This is especially
beneficial if early spring nitro
gen applications are avoided
and the nitrogen is sidedressed
after the spring wet period.
During a 10-year period, we nave docu
mented in our research an average of nine
bushels per acre advantage from the same
amount and forms of nitrogen simply by
sidedressing.
Sidedressing also allows us to use the
pre-sidedress soil nitrate test (PSNT),
which is another tool that can help to fine
tune nitrogen requirements. This test is
especially useful where manure is being
depended on to supply the nitrogen needs
of the crop.
In using manure, there is often consider
able uncertainty about the nitrogen content
and availability of the manure. This is usu
ally dealt with by applying insurance fertil
izer to compensate for this uncertainty.
However, with the increase in fertilizer
prices, this insurance has also become
more expensive.
The PSNT has been shown to be a very
effective replacement for this insurance
fertilization. The test will confirm if there
is adequate nitrogen for the crop and, if
not, a supplemental nitrogen application
can be made.
Nitrogen management cannot be looked
at in isolation. All other crop management
will have an impact on the nitrogen effi
ciency of the crop. For example, poor weed
control will result in lower yields and sig
nificant amounts of the higher priced nitro
gen being taken up and used to grow weeds
rather than being used by the crop. Many
other examples could be cited, such as
hybrid selection, planting technique, insect
control, soil compaction, other nutrients,
etc. Optimizing the whole package of crop
production practices will contribute to
improving nitrogen use efficiency by the
com crop.
Finally, farmers can almost always get a
better price with early fertilizer purchases
because it enables dealers to better antici
pate farmer needs and lock in better prices
with their suppliers. This year, however,
there is a much bigger than usual dividend
for farmers who have planned ahead and
bought theif fertilizer early.
The bottom line for dealing with
increased nitrogen fertilizer prices is not to
arbitrarily cut back on this critical crop
production input but to tighten up overall
management to maximize the effective
ness of the fertilizer nitrogen that you do