Extension Update by Gary Zoubeck [December 18, 2014]

Coming Events

Dec. 18, 2014, NE Soybean Day & Machinery Expo, 8:30 a.m., Fairgrounds, Wahoo

Dec. 22, 2014, Extension Board Exec. Mtg, noon, Extension Office, York

Nitrogen Use Efficiency

Charles Shapiro, Extension Agronomist shared a recent column of his that I found it to be very interesting, so I thought I’d share it. Do you know your nitrogen use efficiency? (NUE).

His column follows: “Do you know your PFP? What the heck is PFP? In science speak, PFP is an abbreviation for Partial Factor Productivity. It is one way to calculate nitrogen use efficiency, which is sometimes abbreviated NUE. That probably does not help much either. What it means, related to corn production and nitrogen use, is how much corn is produced with a pound of nitrogen fertilizer.”

One can think of it as the miles-per-gallon type number for nitrogen efficiency in corn production. A car’s miles per gallon do not tell the whole story.

A small hybrid might have 50 miles per gallon compared to a pickup, but if the pickup is pulling a large load, the small hybrid might not be able to accomplish the task, or need to make several trips to get the job done, canceling out the advantage. But when all things are equal, miles per gallon will give some idea of gas efficiency.

With nitrogen and corn, the pounds of corn grain produced per pound of nitrogen applied is not the whole story since the plant takes up nitrogen from other sources. Another measure of efficiency would be the pounds of grain relative to all nitrogen applied and accounted for as credits. For years, University of Nebraska-Lincoln recommendation procedures have been based on credits from other sources such as irrigation water, manure, soil nitrates and legumes. Using these credits will increase the PFP of fertilizer nitrogen compared to ignoring them.

My farm management professor from college used to say, “You can’t manage what you don’t mea- sure,” so as we work toward increasing our nitrogen use efficiency we need to have a measurement that will help us know if our changes in management are producing benefits. One of these measures could be PFP.

Some numbers might help. One way to calculate the PFP is to take the corn yield, multiply by 56 and divide by the pounds of nitrogen applied. Here are two examples, both with yields of 200 bushels per acre. First, 150 pounds of nitrogen were applied to the field; this calculates to a PFP of 75 [(200 x 56)/150]. Second, 225 pounds of nitrogen were applied to the field; this calculates to a PFP of 50.

To put this in perspective, in Nebraska when the nitrogen purchased is divided by the reported corn yield, the pounds of grain per unit of nitrogen comes out to a PFP of over 60. This number has been increasing since the 1960s. The higher the better. Hypothetically, if one were to apply only the nitrogen that was removed in a bushel of corn (0.7 pounds nitrogen), the PFP would be 80.

This is not realistic since nitrogen is needed to grow the rest of the plant, and we use 1.2 pounds as a rule of thumb for the amount of nitrogen to grow a plant with one bushel of corn with 0.7 pounds nitro- gen in it.

So how can we improve our PFP? That is where taking credits for already available nitrogen comes in. If these credits are taken, and we reduce our applied nitrogen, we increase our PFP. In the ex- ample above, where the PFP was compared for the two nitrogen rates used to produce 200 bushels of corn, the 150-pound nitrogen rate was derived from the UNL Corn Nitrogen Calculator with credits for soil organic matter, soybeans as a previous crop and some irrigation nitrates. The 225-pound nitrogen rate was derived from giving a general 50-pound credit for soil nitrogen.

Use your calculated PFP to help you decide if you need to look for more ways to credit the nitrogen that is there. If the issue is not nitrogen, then some other management factor is keeping your yields low, and that needs to be addressed.

In a recent issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality, UNL professor Richard Ferguson documented the situation in the Central Platte Natural Resources District.

There he found that although there was high PFP when fertilizer nitrogen was calculated, when the potential credits were included in total nitrogen available, the PFP went down from the 60s to the 40s. This indicates there may be nitrogen credits that could be used.

Efficiency has to be balanced with total production. Nitrogen use efficiency is highest before maxi- mum profit and yield are achieved, so one can’t use PFP to determine nitrogen recommendations. How- ever, in order to produce corn profitably with low corn prices, efficiency has to be high.

Calculate the PFP on various fields, and if they are below 65, then take the time to determine if there are missing credits available.

Go to http://cropwatch.unl.edu/soils to find many tools and resources to improve nitrogen use efficiency.”

While at CropWatch, please also take time to complete our CropWatch survey by this Friday, December 19 at:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CropWatch.  If you would like a chance to win a free Crop Production Clinic registration or 5 weed guides, please include your contact information in the optional last question.  Otherwise, your survey will remain anonymous.  We would really appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

Field Assessment Meetings

The past week I along with several other Extension Educators and Charles have been involved in a series of Field to Market field assessment meetings to improve efficiency in farming practices and production.  We had sessions in Clay Center, Geneva, Auburn, Fairbury, Aurora and Fremont with 27 producers participating.  The goal of the effort is to quantify several indicators to increase understanding of the environmental and economic impact of management practices and to determine which practices will improve sustainability without decreasing economic value.  We also want to communicate to the general farming community and the public the efficiencies that exist in agriculture and future goals to continue to make improvements.

We’re working with the Field to Market team and the website: www.fieldtomarket.org.  Producers that participate will input their production practices on individual fields for 2013 and/or 2014 and have that information summarized.  The information is confidential, but eventually they’ll be able to compare their fields to others in the Nebraska project.  I know that both the Soybean Growers and Corn Growers are encouraging their producers to participate.

I did not host a session last week, but hope too after the 1^st of the year.  There is no charge to participate, so if you’d like more information or are interested, give me a call 402-362-5508 or email me at gzoubek1@unl.edu.

Farm Bill Education Meeting

We had about 320 people attend our Farm Bill Educational meeting last Tuesday Dec. 9^th and I heard several positive comments about the presentations.  It’s an extremely complicated program and producers are encouraged to attend more than one session as well as check out our webpage that includes some excellent tools to help you determine the best options for your farm situation.

For more Farm Bill information, go to: http://agecon.unl.edu/farmbill.

York Extension Centennial Notes

1949

In a 4-H Special Edition, Floyd Gloystein was elected Editor In Chief, in the York Republican Weekly.

50,000 acres of cropland were sprayed by airplane for bindweed.  On certain days so much of the drift was in the air that people had difficulty sleeping at nights and there was very few acres of cropland that was not subject to this drift.  These eight airplanes could spray four to six thousand acres per day with good flying condition.  A number of gardens were paid for by the airplane operators.  Many tomato plants were damaged that were not paid for.  This is a problem that needs the immediate attention of someone.

Five hundred growers attended the August 10^th irrigation tour.  The group was beyond expectations and very difficult to handle because of the stream of cars was about two miles long.  But it demonstrated that the public thinks pump irrigation is very important.

Educator Milton Reifschneider conducted an irrigator survey of 55 producers.  It was a year of above average precipitation.

Cost/Acre Irrigation                # of wells

$3-$5                                       12

$5-$7                                       12

$7-$9                                       10

$9-$11                                       6

$11 +                                       15

The average cost of operating the 55 wells was $2.50 per acre or 52 cents/hour while the fixed costs were $6.06 or $1.45 per hour.  Fixed costs are greater than operator costs.

Five years after fertilizer was demonstrated, it’s now accepted by all farmers on dryland as well as irrigated land.  Eight carloads of commercial fertilizer were sold in 1949.

E.A. Levitt, a local merchant, donated a 4-H building 30 feet by 84 feet which is to contain kitchen, restrooms, and a large assembly room with a stage across one end.  This will be used during the county fair exclusively for 4-H exhibits, mainly for home economics during eh balance of the year and for other kinds of activity.  This building housed 22 4-H booths, the girls 4-H work, school exhibits, the office for the secretary of the county fair, as well as the kitchen which was used a stand for the benefit of the 4-H people.  This last development was made possible by volunteer farmers’ help from over the entire county.  This volunteer labor was organized by the County Agent in that he selected one man in each township who was responsible for securing 10 men in his township for one day.  The names of these farmers were published in the newspaper and as a result the volunteer labor started to snow-ball and toward the latter end of the period, other farmers who were not in the original ten asked permission to organize work battalions and as a result, forty men were actively at work in working not only on the 4-H building but on the grandstand, fences and any other place where they were needed.

Joe McCarthy and Marilyn Larkin were this year’s King and Queen.  Joe and his brother had the Champion Market Steer and Market Heifer.

In 1950, seventeen soil samples were sent to Lincoln for testing.  Almost all came back short of nitrate.  The eighth annual Irrigation Clinic was held March 15^th with 700 attending.

Assistance was given the County Fair in planning and construction of 3 buildings.  This was a hog house, Agricultural Hall, and pump and well house.  The responsibility of securing the work battalions was assigned the County Agent and over 300 work days were donated by town and farm people.  This work was started in July during harvest time and businessmen in York furnished over fifty working days of time by allowing their employees to work half-days.  We also assisted in getting the boss carpenter located and hired to head up this work.  When harvest was completed, work battalions by townships of five or more men were organized to come in and help with various jobs such as painting, laying the sewer from the city to the 4-H building.

Farm Safety—Due to the large number of killings, loss of arms and legs from farm machinery and traffic accidents, our County Extension Board in June set up a Farm Safety Committee in cooperation with the Township Chairmen and Vice Chairmen.  The County Extension Board called themselves together with the Township Chairmen and Vice chairmen and asked that three persons in each township be appointed as reports on farm accidents.  Also to report any blind corners at road intersections or farmstead lane intersections.

Three deaths were reported, two hands amputate, one broken nose, one death due to horse crushing farmer, and 3 accidents due to blind corners.  Three blind intersections have been eliminated, one being done by a 4-H club, one being done by a member of the Farm Safety Committee, and two by the Highway Department after accidents had happened at the particular corners.

Five hundred people attend the Pancake Feed at the City Auditorium and consumed 4,000 pancakes.  Profit from the event will be used to purchase heating equipment for the 4-H Building.  Net profit was $205.65.  The 4-H Building was dedicated August 8, 1950.