Beta-testing the Adapt-N Tool in On-farm Strip Trials

IPNI-2012-USA-NY10

27 Mar 2014

2013 Annual Interpretive Summary


The Adapt-N program provides N fertilizer recommendations adapted to the spring rainfall and temperature conditions of the current season, using high-resolution weather data, a sophisticated computer model, and field-specific information on soil properties and soil and crop management. The objectives of this project are to validate the Adapt-N tool for on-farm use and promote greater grower adoption of Adapt-N as part of their tool kit for adaptive N management, focused on rate and timing of fertilizer application. The main hypothesis is that the Adapt-N tool provides more accurate estimates of the current season’s optimum N rate than conventional methods and tools. In 2011 and 2012, on-farm strip trials compared corn yields with Adapt-N recommended rates to those with growers' conventional N management.

Adapt-N increased profit in 80% of the 56 trials in New York, and in 75% of the 28 trials in Iowa. Profit increases were due primarily to reduced fertilizer application rates, owing to dry conditions in those two years. These results are documented in Better Crops 2013 issue #4. In contrast, the wet conditions of the 2013 growing season proved to be a good opportunity for Adapt-N to demonstrate its value in identifying where large N losses needed to be corrected to prevent deficiencies and support high yields. More than 100 on-farm trials were conducted, and many growers were shocked to discover how the N they had applied before or at planting had been lost prior to plant uptake because of the wet conditions. Thus the use of this tool is motivating producers to consider improving the timing of N fertilizer application to achieve higher efficiency. The number of registered users of Adapt-N has increased to nearly 1,000, and the active users cover over 150,000 acres with the fields that have been entered. Further analysis of the 2013 results is underway, and plans are being made to continue this project in 2014.