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The simple answer is yes it can. Doing so profitably (you listed saving money as your reason for doing this) is a lot more complicated, but well worth studying out! :) Don't know what your soil tests at right now, so - a guess. Corn - don't know what you hope to yield, so - a guess. Needed P & K: Your corn will like close to 50 lbs of each per acre. Depends a little on how much yield you want, and of course how much is in your soil, but applying more than 50 lbs of each could be wasteful. Often manure will get the P built up in your soil, need to watch out for too much of that from manure. N - the corn needs around 1 lb of N available for every bu of corn you hope to harvest (some say .6 lb, some feel 1.2 lb - this is not an exact science yet...). So, 150 bu yield, you need 150 lbs of N per acre. However, if you had soybeans the previous year, you can assume there is 40 lbs already there, only needing 110 added. Or if you had an alfalfa field, you can asume 100-150 lbs is already there. Making it more complicated, if you apply 100 lbs worth of N per acre as manure, probably only 50 lbs will be available to your corn this year, and 25% or so the following year.... But, it's well worth figuring out all these numbers, and getting closer to what your corn needs. You know we often need to add sulfur now to the soil? Thanks to EPA - they cleaned up our air with anti-smog rules which is good for breathing - but now we are short on sulfur in nature, and need to add it, esp for corn. Soil test will help you know if you need it or not. Manure will actually make soil ph go down a bit, that is something to consider if you need lime, esp if you plan a heavy application. --->Paul
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