Push the Limit:Farm Journal Test Plots conclude high-yield three-year study

摘要

What does it take to push fields to the highest yield level? For the past three years, Farm Journal Asso-ciate Field Agronomist Missy Bauer set out to answer that with multi-site demonstrations in southern Michigan."To increase yields, farmers must identify the weakest link in their production practices," Bauer says. "The goal of the these plots was to push populations and push fertility to understand the lacking component in high-yielding environments—irrigated corn-on-corn fields."The test plots were set up to compare the traditional fertility program (determined by soil tests) and the farmer's standard nitrogen sidedress rate as a check to the higher fertility programs.