Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #344715
Research Project: Sustainable Intensification of Grain and Biomass Cropping Systems using a Landscape-Based GxExM Approach

Location: Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research

Title: Evaluation of the soil health nutrient tool for corn nitrogen recommendations across the Midwest

Author
item YOST, MATT - Utah State University
item Kitchen, Newell

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/6/2017
Publication Date: 10/22/2017
Citation: Yost, M.A., Kitchen, N.R. 2017. Evaluation of the soil health nutrient tool for corn nitrogen recommendations across the Midwest [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting, October 22-25, 2017, Tampa, Florida. Available: https://scisoc.confex.com/crops/2017am/recordingredirect.cgi/id/29889.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Use and development of soil biological tests for estimating soil N availability and subsequently corn (Zea mays L.) fertilizer N recommendations is garnering considerable interest. The objective of this research was to evaluate relationships between the Soil Health Nutrient Tool (SHNT), also known as the Soil Health Tool or Haney test, and the economically optimum N rate (EONR) for corn grain yield at 17 sites in eight Midwest US states in 2016. Trials were conducted with a standard set of protocols and EONR was calculated for N applied at planting and as a split between planting and sidedress. The SHNT recommendations with expected yield accounted for =30% of the variation in EONR among sites. Two components of the SHNT not directly used in the SHNT N recommendation for corn, the soil health calculation and the Solvita CO2-Burst® lab test, accounted for the most variation in EONR. These two components were highly related (R2 = 0.98) with each other and subsequently both accounted for about one-half (R2 = 0.48) of the variation in EONR for N applied at planting and nearly two-thirds (R2 = 0.61) of the variation for N applied as a split. Thus, these two components may help improve N recommendations for corn in the Midwest, especially the Solvita CO2-Burst because it costs less to determine and is highly correlated to the soil health calculation.