Networking for Farmers

Networking for Farmers
Iowa Soybean Association network helps growers reduce their use of nitrogen

The "On-Farm Network" enables neighboring farmers to share information and best practices on fertilizing.

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The Iowa Soybean Association, which represents 6,000 growers, is pioneering a new way to reduce the over-application of nitrogen fertilizers. The potential benefits are huge—both for the environment and the business of farming. Nitrogen fertilizer is a costly input for farmers, and nitrogen loss through leaching is an environmental problem because at excessive levels, it pollutes waterways, near and far.

The ISA calls it the "On-Farm Network®." University researchers call it "adaptive nutrient management." We like to call it "information is power" because that is essentially what it is: Groups of farmers, typically neighbors, farming similar soils in similar weather conditions, sharing information from their own on-farm studies and from that, developing strategies for how and when to apply the least amount of nitrogen for the best economic and environmental results.

Growers collaborate on local best practices
Farmers use a variety of tools and techniques, many quite new, to collect data about the nutrient content of their soil, their yield, rainfall, etc. In Iowa, farmers use aerial imagery and GPS data to select locations in fields where end-of-season cornstalk nitrate tests are taken, and harvest using combines equipped with yield monitors and GPS to record crop yields. Once data is collected and analyzed by the network’s infrastructure of technical experts, farmers and their advisors get together in local groups of 10 to 25, usually during the winter, to talk about their methods and techniques and how to improve.

"The most important component of adaptive nutrient management is the winter meetings the farmers and their advisors attend to discuss their individual data and the data from their group," says Tom Morris, an associate professor of soil fertility at the University of Connecticut, who is working on a similar effort with Pennsylvania farmers whose land is part of the watershed that flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

This technique, Morris says, has proven to be more effective for managing nitrogen than using the broad generic guidelines provided by university and other agronomy experts. By comparing their own data and experiences with those of other growers through the On-Farm Network, farmers are better equipped to make nitrogen management decisions.

Collaboration drives nitrogen reduction
The environmental and economic benefits of these agricultural networks are impressive. Tracy Blackmer, director of research for the Iowa Soybean Association, says that not all participating growers respond in the same way to their results. "Some find they can cut back significantly on nitrogen use. For others, this confirms that what they were doing is correct. A few learn that they actually need to use more in order to produce optimal yields," he says. On the average though, growers have reduced nitrogen use by about 30%, or about 30 pounds of nitrogen per acre, without reducing their profit per acre.

Interestingly, the rising cost of nitrogen fertilizer, by itself, was not a sufficient reason for many farmers to cut back because of fears that if they applied too little, they would lose both yield and net income. By conducting their own studies of rates, timing, and form of nitrogen used and then networking with other growers to compare results, they have learned how to manage fertilizer in a way that is more environmentally sound while maintaining farm income.