Ken Staver, Director of the Wye Research and Education Center (WREC) welcomed the crowd at our 4R Technology Field Day on August 15 by encouraging them to “go beyond the surface and really dig into the topics, ask a lot of questions.” Field day attendees visited four stations throughout the day, focused on the right source, rate, timing and placement of nutrients.
Our four presenters- Bob Kratochvil, Ken Staver, Nicole Fiorellino and Jarrod Miller- did a great job! Along with their organizations (University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources for Drs. Kratochvil, Fiorellino and Staver and University of Delaware College of Agriculture and Natural Resources for Dr. Miller), these folks are a great resource for staying up to date on relevant research and timely agronomy tips. If you’re active on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you’ll want to follow them!
The Delaware-Maryland 4R Alliance posted two articles recently on its Facebook page related to 4R tools and technologies.
The first post links to a Delmarva Farmer article about University of Delaware Agronomist Jarrod Miller exploring potential applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) in agriculture. Miller talks about how he’s working with drones to identify potential agronomic uses that will justify the cost to the farmer. “Part of our goal” he says, “is learn the basics and tell people what we learned. Maybe they can figure out ways to use it better for their own operation.”
The second post links to an article in Crops & Soils Magazine by Sally Flis, Director of Agronomy for The Fertilizer Institute, discussing the need and potential options to improve the links between nutrient source, placement and timing in order to make better recommendations on nitrogen rate. The article talks about two common frameworks to develop nitrogen recommendations, as well as up-and-coming tools and approaches to better integrate nitrogen source, timing and placement decisions with the right N rate. The article points out how “Further research is needed on the impact of combining source, rate, time, and placement changes in a single experiment and their impact on [Nitrogen Recover Efficiency, or] NRE.”
The first field in the DM4RA’s 2017 demonstration shows a light green area in the field that reflects where nitrogen carried over from the previous crop.
In 2017, the DM4RA worked with Hoober and two Delmarva farmers on a demonstration project, using a drone to help inform in-season nitrogen application decisions. In the project, a drone captured NDVI data on corn fields when the farmer was getting ready to make a sidedress nitrogen application. NDVI, or “normalized difference vegetation index” is essentially a measure of crop vigor. It’s the same kind of data that’s used in optical sensors like Greenseeker and OptRx to determine nitrogen sidedress rates on-the-go. In this case, the NDVI data was used to create a map of the crop fields, and delineate different management areas in the field. How the data was used to inform nitrogen application rates differed between the two fields.
In the first field, the corn followed a spinach crop from the previous year in a portion of the field. The spinach crop was assumed to have taken up all of the nitrogen that was applied, without any nitrogen carrying over into the 2017 crop year. The original recommended N rate for the field was a variable-rate prescription based on previous years’ yields. The NDVI data, however, indicated that corn growing in the portion of the field had a higher NDVI relative to other parts of the field, indicating that there was some N carryover from the previous year that supported vigorous early growth and development. With that knowledge, it was possible to reduce the N application rate in that part of the field, assuming that some of the N requirement of the corn was met by N carried over from the previous crop.
In the second field, the light green area represents a portion of the field with higher yield potential than the orange and red areas of the field.
In the second field, the drone was flown too early in the season for us to base N application rates on the NDVI data with sufficient confidence. In that field, we simply compared the NDVI data that was taken early in the season to the harvest data, to see if there appeared to be a correlation between the two. In this case, even early in the season, the NDVI data did seem to match up with different areas in the field with high and low yield potential. In future years, the farmer might use this data to delineate different management areas in the field to adjust N application rates according to crop yield potential.
What these two demonstrations showed is that there is potential to use NDVI data to help inform N application decisions. In the first field, data from the drone helped to identify an area where available nitrogen existed that would not have been previously accounted for. In the second field, NDVI data helped to identify areas in the field with high and low yield potential. The NDVI data reflects conditions within the current season that impact 4R management decisions and can result in more accurate N application rates.
In both cases, however, NDVI data collected from the drone did not translate directly into a sidedress N application rate. (This is different than active optical sensors that are mounted on a sprayer and use an algorithm to calculate the right N rate on the fly.) In the first field, for example, the NDVI data did not quantify how much N was left over from the previous crop that could be subtracted from the current application rate. In the second field, it isn’t clear from the data how much the N application rate should vary between the areas of the field with low yield potential versus high yield potential. The NDVI data is helpful to guide application rates in combination with agronomic expertise and familiarity with the field. These informed decisions may improve economic and environmental outcomes compared to a flat-rate application strategy, if they’re a part of an overall management strategy that looks at multiple factors that can impact yield potential (such as pH, other nutrient deficiencies and drainage concerns) and allows for flexibility to address in-season conditions (such as split N applications).
The conclusion of the article in Crops and Soils says that “the influence of weather, soil, and other conservation practices on yield and efficiency measures like NRE needs further consideration in the advancement of nitrogen recommendation systems.” Drones certainly have the potential to be one tool in that toolbox.
Local 4R nutrient stewardship alliances including the Delaware Maryland 4R Alliance have announced the formation of a new association called the Mid-Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association. The new alliance will advance the groups’ existing missions of achieving cleaner waterways and healthy soils on farms while also improving farmers’ bottom lines by keeping applied nutrients on fields to grow crops and preventing nutrients from leaving the field into area waterways. This work will be funded in part by a new grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation aimed at assessing and accelerating the current levels of 4R engagement.
The 4R alliances are partnerships among agribusinesses, farmers, researchers, conservation organizations, and local, state, and federal agencies that encourage the application of the right fertilizers at the right time, the right rate and in the right place. This framework of nutrient management was first established by The Fertilizer Institute. The Chesapeake Bay Program has recognized this type of nutrient management as a critical foundation to successfully reducing nitrogen and phosphorus loss on farms.
“Keeping nutrients on farmers’ fields where they belong and out of our waterways is not only good for a farmer’s bottom line but good for the environment,” said Bill Angstadt, chair of the Mid-Atlantic 4R Nutrient Stewardship Association. “That’s why agribusinesses have embraced the 4R approach, because finding solutions that are good for business while improving water quality, habitat, and healthy soils will be good for the agricultural community.”
By sharing knowledge, experience, new technology and techniques, 4R partners work together to help farmers more precisely apply nutrients to feed their crops so fewer nutrients leave the farm field. Partners also promote practices at the edges of fields that trap nutrients and sediment before they can enter local waterways. The key to the success of these partnerships is finding the right set of practices that also make economic sense to farmers through costs savings and/or increased yields to make the practices sustainable. In doing so, these farmers are going beyond the bare minimum required to comply with environmental regulations and play a crucial role in addressing agriculture’s environmental impact.
Mid-Atlantic 4R will help facilitate this knowledge sharing at the regional level, which will be supported in part by a recently awarded grant from NFWF with a goal to implement practices on 335,000 acres and reduce the loss of approximately 1,500,000 pounds of nitrogen and 90,000 pounds of phosphorus to the Chesapeake Bay. The grant will fund activities such as demonstration projects for new technology and techniques, and wide-scale surveys to track implementation of practices by farmers. The source of funds to NFWF includes the Environmental Protection Agency and the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction grants program. Matching funds are being provided by Growmark Foundation, Agrium, The Nature Conservancy and the Delaware Maryland Agribusiness Association.
The application of fertilizer is an essential part of successful crop cultivation, but when even relatively small amounts of nutrients get into local streams and rivers, they can degrade water quality, and harm rivers and bays. In the Chesapeake Bay, for example, elevated levels of nutrients cause large-scale algae blooms that block sunlight needed by oxygen-producing underwater plants and grasses, resulting in oxygen-starved dead zones and severely degraded habitat for other organisms. The recently documented resurgence of many underwater grasses in the bay has been attributed to successful, ongoing regional efforts to reduce nutrient runoff, of which efforts by local farmers and 4R alliances are an essential part.
“What makes the 4R approach so successful is that it brings a diverse range of partners together to work toward a common goal of a healthy environment and a thriving agricultural industry,” said Amy Jacobs, agriculture program director for The Nature Conservancy in Maryland. “Keeping nutrient pollution out of our waterways and the Chesapeake Bay is a goal we all have a role to play in, and the Mid-Atlantic 4R Association will help farmers, agribusiness, local agencies, and conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy make an even larger impact.”
For more information for farmers or other potential agribusiness partners looking to join a local 4R alliance, contact Nature Conservancy Agriculture Specialist Keiller Kyle at 315-730-7454 or keiller.kyle@tnc.org.
The Delaware-Maryland 4R Alliance and University of Maryland Extension invite growers and agribusiness professionals to join them for their 4R Technology Field Day on August 15, 2018 at the Wye Research and Education Center in Queenstown, Maryland. The event will be showcasing application of the 4Rs (right source, right rate, right time, and right place) on the Delmarva. Demonstrations will include phosphorus placements, drones and mapping, options for nitrogen management and conservation practices and water quality monitoring. There will also be a panel of local farmers discussing how they have been successful in implementing 4R nutrient management practices in their operations.
Registration will begin at 8:30 am and the program will be from 9:30 – 2:30. Lunch will be provided as well as Nutrient Management and Certified Crop Advisor credits. We ask that you register so we can get an accurate count. To register please visit: https://technology-field-day-tickets.eventbrite.com.
The Delaware-Maryland 4R Alliance is a partnership between agribusinesses, farmers, researchers, conservation organizations, and local, state, and federal agencies that encourages the application of the right fertilizers at the right time, the right rate, and in the right place. This framework of nutrient management was first established by The Fertilizer Institute. The Chesapeake Bay Program has recognized this type of nutrient management as a critical foundation to successfully reducing nitrogen and phosphorus loss on farms.
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