Nutrient Management for Agronomic Crops in Nebraska

For most Nebraska crops, at least some fertilization is required to supplement soil nutrient levels for optimum yield potential. Much of the required fertility has come from commercial fertilizers, although Nebraska producers in recent years have become increasingly aware of the need to account for nutrients from a variety of sources such as manure, compost, legumes and irrigation water. Consequently, even though average crop yields continue to increase, the rates of nitrogen applied to corn have tended to plateau or even decline. Producers have continued to adopt practices such as delayed nitrogen fertilizer application, crop rotation, band application, nitrification inhibitor use, efficient irrigation water application, and others that have increased fertilizer efficiency throughout the state.
This manual is a guide to nutrient use from all sources for the production of Nebraska's major agronomic crops: corn, winter wheat, grain sorghum, oats, alfalfa, dry edible beans, soybean, sugar beets, popcorn, sunflower, millet, potatoes and cool and warm season grasses for hay and pasture. Part I of the manual contains information focusing on basic prinicples of soil fertility for the primary, secondary and micro nutrients, as well as chemical and physical properties of soil and soil management. Part II contains chapters devoted to each crop, with information on current fertilizer recommendations for each.

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