Optimal nitrogen use

This is Tim Hammerich from Ag Information Network with your report, “Farm of the Future.”

FarmTest and the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative (INI) recently partnered to conduct fertilizer rate trials on Iowa farms to determine where, how and when to apply nitrogen. According to INI co-founder Dr. Mike Castellano, this is a win-win situation because farmers are more informed about their options and it also shows how efficiently U.S. farmers are using nitrogen.

Castellano… “Again, it’s about a common goal. And that is to show how efficient U.S. farmers are. And making that data transparent and publicly available is really important as we begin to assess the environmental impact of U.S. agriculture and crop production. When we look at things like assessing the carbon intensity of our crops, over 70 percent of the carbon intensity of producing a bushel of corn comes from nitrogen, whether it’s through N2O emissions from the field or the energy that goes into the fertilizer that’s applied to the field. The same is true even for soybeans, which don’t typically get nitrogen fertilizer, over 70 percent comes from nitrous oxide emissions and the small amount of fertilizer that soybeans get. So having that data publicly available not only allows farmers to compare themselves to the average, but also to compare U.S. agriculture and show how efficient we are.”

The co-founder of the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative, Dr. Mike Castellano, also speaks here.