Agricultural Management Options for Climate Variability and Change: Sensor-Based, Variable-Rate Nitrogen Management

Nitrogen fertilizer cost represents about 10%–15% of total farm costs for corn, cotton, and wheat in the Southeastern United States. The efficiency of nitrogen use can be highly variable for producers, so a sensor-based, variable-rate nitrogen application (SVNA) system has been developed for irrigat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wesley Porter, Ahmad Khalilian, Daniel Dourte, Clyde Fraisse
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries 2012-07-01
Series:EDIS
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Online Access:https://journals.flvc.org/edis/article/view/119969
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Summary:Nitrogen fertilizer cost represents about 10%–15% of total farm costs for corn, cotton, and wheat in the Southeastern United States. The efficiency of nitrogen use can be highly variable for producers, so a sensor-based, variable-rate nitrogen application (SVNA) system has been developed for irrigated and dryland row crops to reduce production costs. Using sensor-based N application, there is a minimum 20% reduction in N usage. If that rate reduction were applied to all the cotton, corn, and wheat grown in the United States, CO2 emissions from N fertilizer production would be decreased by 2.7 million tons. This 4-page fact sheet was written by Wesley Porter, Ahmad Khalilian, Daniel Dourte, and Clyde Fraisse, and published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, July 2012.
ISSN:2576-0009