/AnMtgsAbsts2009.51735 A Precision N Management Approach to Minimize Impacts.

Monday, November 2, 2009: 10:30 AM
Convention Center, Room 301-302, Third Floor

Peter Scharf, Div. of Plant Sciences, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO, Newell Kitchen, USDA-ARS, Cropping Systems & Water Quality Res. Unit, Columbia, MO and Kevin Bronson, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Lubbock, TX
Abstract:
Nitrogen fertilizer is a crucial input for crop production but contributes to agriculture’s environmental footprint via CO2 emissions, N2O emissions, and eutrophication of coastal waters. The low-cost way to minimize this impact is to eliminate over-application of N. This is more difficult than it sounds. Weather interacting with terrain has a huge influence on N loss, N mineralization, and crop yield potential (therefore N demand). Optimal nitrogen fertilizer rate varies widely from year to year, field to field, and place to place within a field. Precision N management technologies are the only way to address within-field variability, and some may help to address year-to-year or field-to-field variability as well. Examples of precision N management will be presented, including canopy sensors, remote sensing, N credit zones, soil productivity zones, and grid soil nitrate sampling. We will attempt to quantify the effect of these approaches on agriculture's footprint on the landscape.