2021 October Stewardship Advocate

Posted on October 27, 2021 at 9:08 AM by Iowa Corn

MONTHLY UPDATE FROM BEN GLEASON, IOWA CORN SUSTAINABLE PROGRAMS MANAGER

October 2021

Happy Harvest! Hope everyone is staying safe during this busy time!

Colder weather has arrived, and soil temperatures are slowly reaching the safe zone for fall nitrogen applications. Risk of nitrogen loss is reduced when soil temperatures are consistently below 50 degrees. Drought conditions may not have impacted yields as expected but did reduce nitrogen losses to air and water leaving higher than usual soil nitrate levels (see map below). Be sure to test your soil to account for this nitrogen and make sure it doesn’t leave the soil and cause water quality problems in the spring. Here are some nitrogen management recommendations:

Verify soil nitrate levels with soil testing.
Use a nitrogen stabilizer e.g. N-Serve.
Reduce nitrogen rates or apply nitrogen in spring or in-season.
Plant cover crops. The Iowa Department of Agriculture is offering a $5 crop insurance discount for cover crop acres.

While careful nitrogen management improves profitability, some acres are consistently unprofitable. These acres can be planted to wildlife habitat and enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to improve profitability. The National Corn Growers Association has a new partnership with Pheasants Forever that provides free field visits from Farm Bill biologists to address these acres. Click here for more information.

With harvest entering the home stretch, there are some big events coming up for your consideration: