Company pushes nitrogen efficiency

Each growing season is different and so is the proper timing and application of nitrogen.

There were some issues in 2015 with excessive rain in June but 2016 was a nearly ideal year, so nitrogen wasn’t necessarily the limiting factor. Matt Foes of 360 Yield Center said his company did some comparisons of Y-Drop applications next to the row versus coulter applications between rows of corn.

“If you were doing late applications, you were better off than all up front, however sometimes the difference between application type of sidedress wan’t as large as other cases,” Foes told farmers attending a winter meeting hosted by Jenner Precision of Fairbury.

This year, growers used fewer pounds per bushel of corn than they did in 2015. Foes believes learning to wait as long as possible is going to be the key to being very efficient going forward.

Jenner Precision worked with BCS and used one of their coulter bars with Y-Drops across half of the bar. They ran the machine through several fields.

“The Y-Drop won over the coulter the majority of the time. We saw a range of anywhere from 16 bushel down to a one bushel difference,” said Nate Kelson of Jenner Precision.

One of 360 Yield Center’s new features this year includes YieldSaver which replaces the gathering chain on a corn head with a new one which has brushes. Those brushes eliminate the head shell farmers struggle with, especially as corn dries down in the fall. This allows more corn to be brought into the combine.

Another feature is 360 Chainroll which is a chopping stalk roll that handles residue for the following year. The 360 Bullet is a redesigned chisel plow ripper point which fractures the entire soil profile.

“We generally come out and just visit with growers on their farm, look at their equipment and see what is going to make the most sense to gain bushels or drop their input costs,” added Kelson.

Jenner Precision has a team of three technical specialists and three sales representatives. The business can be reached at 815-692-6655 and Kelson can be reached directly at 815-842-7952. For more about 360 Yield Center, visit www.360YieldCenter.com.