Sandor Fehervari
17 Nov 2021
Yield Potential Zones qualify as a proxy for N application management.
We created a Variable N application map based on our Field Potential Zone Map. As part of our sustainability vision we optimized the N dosage for the Field potential Zones and decreased on lower potential, increased on higher potential Zones. The average zone point was the farm plan - the amount that the farm used - for the field (350kg/ha Urea).
Below you see an Urea Prescription Map created and applied in 2021 Spring. We defined a control block in the middle of the field with standard farm planned dose (350kg/ha) to check the Yield impact of our prescription after harvest.
The Yield map results are avilable for visual assesment below. It’s hard to decide by the Yield Map if there is any difference between the Variable dosage and the standard Farm rate, so we created an analysis to see what’s the real value of our advice.
If we analyze the data with or GIS tools, do validation of the Yield Map data, align it with the Spring Application Layer and compare the prescription layers by Zones, then we could see the difference:
As the BoxPlot demonstrates, each Field Potential Zone is well defining a different Yield Level! The Variable application of Nitrogen which is our 1st pillar of Sustainability brought prositive results (+600kg/ha average) on low and average performing areas and +300kg/ha on the top performing zones. All of this was achieved in a drought year at yield level of 4-6t/ha of Corn. These are very encouraging results, we hope more and more positive trial results will come back to share amongst our community.