Fischer Farms Nitrogen Reduction Trials: 40% Reduction in Nitrogen for Corn

Fischer Farms worked with Superior Ag in Huntingburg, Indiana to conduct nitrogen reduction trials in 2024 through their research as part of the USDA Climate Smart Commodities grant, Ultimate Beef Research Project. The success will be carried into 2025 applications!

Jesse Uebelhor, Division Agronomist with Superior Ag said, “We conducted nitrogen reduction trials at Fischer Farms in 2024. The corn trial used a new biological product that resulted in improved yields from 243 to 249 bushel per acre while reducing nitrogen used from 268 to 160 pounds per acre- a 40% reduction. We plan to conduct additional larger scale trials in 2025 with more farms involved”.

These tests were done on a field following a spring ryegrass harvest. Ryegrass is known to scavenge all the nitrogen into the plant (reducing runoff) thus there wasn’t residual nitrogen for the crop.

Nitrogen requires a large amount of natural gas to produce and has a large greenhouse gas footprint before reaching the farm gate. It also gets into our water systems. Through our USDA Climate Smart Commodities grant we were able to hire an Agronomist to help conduct field trials on various nitrogen reducing techniques. These include over 10 biological products, intercropping legumes into corn and forage sorghum, and trialing new varieties developed to greatly reduce nitrogen requirements.

We also planted a test field of corn in 30” rows with cowpeas in between via splitter rows. This crop performed very well and was harvested using our silage harvester. The cowpeas also provided all the nitrogen needed on the following ryegrass mix crop. This will be trialed on more acres in 2025. This practice has exciting potential to reduce fertilizer while improving yields on many beef and dairy farms.