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Minnesota farmer sees economic and environmental benefits to side-dressing corn

A southeast Minnesota farmer is not reducing fertilizer use despite tight margins.

Rob Tate of Cannon Falls says his fertility plan is the same as other years.

“We try to side-dress a fair amount of nitrogen on our corn, just economically I think there’s a better return to the side-dressing. And of course, from an environmental standpoint, trying to spoon feed the nitrogen throughout the growing season is much better.”

He tells Brownfield nitrogen seems to more positively effect yield that way.

“So we really haven’t changed that due to the economic conditions. And rotation wise, kind of stuck with what we typically have done in the past (as well).”

Tate says his rotation is about two-thirds corn, one-third soybeans.