Advancing Intensive Management of Corn Systems in Minnesota (Irrigated)

Two Global Maize sites are located in Minnesota. The objective for both is to assess the potential of advanced fertilizer and crop management practices for increasing the yield and nitrogen (N) use efficiency of continuous corn. This site is an irrigated sand (Becker, MN) and maximum corn yield in this study averaged 220 bu/A. Removing 40% of corn residue prior to tillage in the previous fall, coupled with a longer-season hybrid (103 vs. 97 day) and a greater planting rate (41,000 vs. 36,000 seeds/A) increased corn yield by 17 to 37 bu/A, depending on the year. It also enhanced the agronomic efficiency of applied N fertilizer from 0.75 to 0.79 lb N/bu.

Advanced fertilizer management, including surface-banded N and sulfur fertilizer applied near the row at planting and three in-season applications of N rather than two, increased corn yield by 13 to 31 bu/A among the years. Coupling advanced fertilizer management with advanced crop management enhanced the removal efficiency of applied N fertilizer to 0.87 lb N/bu across years. These results demonstrate that yield of irrigated continuous corn can be increased with changes in residue management, hybrid selection, and planting rate. These results also show that advanced fertilizer management based on 4R principles can increase corn yield and N fertilizer efficiency on irrigated sands in both standard and high-yield systems.