Applying Fert to corn ground

I was planning on going to a no till operation this spring, applying dry urea and phosporous at 135-40-0 and planting without working in the fertilizer. I was advised by a good neighbor who retired from farming to work in the fert. To do one pass finish tillage I would need to buy a better field cultivator, about a $3000 trade difference. My gut tells me to get the cultivator and work the ground, what do you fellas think?

I would think you would lose your urea if you didn't cover it.
Actually 3,000.00 isn't that much when you look at corn prices.

Have liquid fertilizer sprayed on with your herbicide or use NH3. That's what goes on no-till around here in NW Ill. Chris

You will be fine if you get a rain on the Urea shortly after it is spread.It tends to volitize in hot sunlight. Phosphorus will be fine, spread on top. I do it all the time. Have no-tilled for over 20 years now. Use a determinate hybrid if you don't sidedress and bump up the population. A flex hybrid if you sidedress for highest yields with normal populations.

We apply our urea when corn is a foot tall. We broadcast it with a buggy. We like to cultivate it afterwards but on no-till we use a liquid additive mixed with the urea to stabalize it. It is called agritane.(sp?) We try to get our buggy when there is a ggod chance of rain in the forcast. Way to much N is wasted by farmers who apply a full seasons worth of fertlizer in early April. A wet year and you can pick out the difference just driving by the fields.

My cousin converted to no till in the mid 90s when I started helping at the farm again. Depending on the nitrogen needs of your ground a row starter while planting and then side dress at six inches of stalk gave good results for us. I am big believer in row starter applied with planter in no till. Gets the nitrogen right in the seed bed where it is needed. Fall in love with your chemical dealer as conditions will change yearly doing no till. It is a better way to farm, best of luck to you.

You basically need to apply phosphate and potash 6 months to a year ahead of when the plant needs it.

Nitrogen is another matter. You need to take rainfall into consideration. If the ground is hilly and prone to excess rain it will wash dry fertilizer off. Dry urea will be lost in hot, sunny weather unless worked in.

Use ammonium nitrate, or anhydrous.

Soil type may make some difference.

Contact your local extension agent.

Gene

Also you want to refrain from working the ground for good no till results. You need the surface smooth as possible for the cutter and cover wheel to obtain uniform seed depth. This with proper population is critical to yield. Fall in love with your seed man too for best recommendations.

i've been no-tilling since 1992. if you want the best advice; fine a liquid machine to sidedress with this year. lots of fert dealers have them to rent. some guys put AA on in the spring. after this try to put AA on in the fall.
it takes about 4years to get your soil into shape but you'll never go back to tillage again.
The advice about adding starter works on some soil and not on others. It'll take you a few years to figure out which yours is. No one i know (in my area) has ever proven its any better then a break even deal in our area. I've been studying it and have used it 2 different years and can't see anything positive here. yours might be exactly opposite, my advice is to look at it with both eyes wide open and not get hoodwinked into using it by a fertilizer saleman.

I started no-tilling about 1980 or close. There is just 2 things you need to do. First use a Kinzie or John Deere maxi-merge planter.with keaton row firmers. Second Knife in your Nitrogen, anhydrous is best. you can even do it every other row. Put on 250 lb 18X46-0 and 250lb 0-0-60 can spread it on the top any time. then next year plant to beans wouldn't have to fert beans.

if your using urea, best bet is to work it in. Urea is awfully volatile, and unless its gonna rain the evening after you apply your fert, you'll sleep better if it's worked in. P & K dont matter if its worked in or not. Also, if you absolutely don't want to trade for a one-pass rig, ask you fert dealer about a nitrogen leach inhibitor, such as agrotain. That will give you a little wider window to wait for that rain to soak the urea into the ground. We've had fair results with it. If I were in your shoes, I would rather use anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, or knife in 32/28% liquid N rather than leave the urea on top.

Here in New Mexico in the Rio Grande valley,there is no such thing as no till planting. I wish I could but the soil being so clay based and Alkaline, if we don't turn it you can't get a drill in it. But many of us are not plowing like we used to but are using what we call field rippers. You all most likely call them something else. They are a set of 4 teeth that we bury about 36 to 48 inches and are about a foot apart. They are about 1.5 inches wide and I guess you'd call it a sub soiler. What we do with it is try to bring some of the sandy sub strata up to try to break up the clay loam on top. We do this about once every two years, sometimes yearly depending on how much clay washes in, in the irrigation during the monsoons. But what we have learned is that the best way to apply the chemical fertilizers is to drill them in. We cut the corn rows and then come back with a 6 row mid mount planter on the Super C. We have a board behind the drill to level off the top of the rows. Then we bring in the 4 row tiller and work the fertilizer in and then plant with the seed with the air injection planter. Since we started ripping it with the subsoiler, we have cut way back on the gypsum. The problem we have here is the specific gravity of the soil components. Clay is so light it comes to the top and the other components settle below and the clay ends up so thick and heard it's like trying to grow a crop through a china plate.(slight exaggeration but not much)If you pull a core of about 30 inches and mix it up the soil is great. But if you check layer by layer everything looks out of balance. We also use a lot of sulfur. Not sulfates but bio-ready sulfur. When we started using the sulfur the production increased by almost 30%. Yea hard to believe but the soil lab at the university said that it would pay off to use it so I did. The other thing we are doing is dripping in a product called bio-chem. It is an algae that you grow and it produces an enzyme that helps the soil release the nutrients to the plants easier and so the plants don't expend near as much energy absorbing the nutrients they need. We also during the winter every other year we apply natural manure based fertilizers that we allow to compost for a year. We have plenty of that around with 30 horses and the 30 hear of beef.(My favorite cow is named Prime Rib)We grow one with that name every year) I know that a lot of you if not all of you have had a lot more experience with row crops, but if what I have learned in the last few years can be of any help I feel that I should pass it on.

I was also going to ask about how you all grow the corn that you all grow for biofuel. Is it a hybrid? Do you plant in rows? I saw some one down south using a regular seed drill and was wondering since it wasn't for nutritional use did you try to get as many stalks as you can and not worry about ear production? Just trying to learn. I appreciate learning all I can. Thanks, LarryT

I recommend spending the money on a good planter with a liquid fertilzer attachment, preferrably the piston pump type. (Like John Deere or Kinze) that way you won't have to use as much fertilizer, or, put another way, the fertilizer you do put on will be right where the plant needs it. Phosphorus doesn't move around in the soil. the roots have to find it. Nitrogen does move around in the soil and it works even better if your soil has sufficient water soluble calcium. I recommend putting down liquid starter fertilzer with the planter and then spread dry pelleted urea which will release nitrogen to the soil for about two months after planting. No need to work it in at all. Are you sure you know what no-til really means?