How Less Nitrogen Led to More Bushels

Jared grew up farming near Beason, Illinois, and spent 20 years working for major ag companies like Monsanto, Pioneer, BASF, and GDM before bringing those lessons back to his own operation. That blend of industry exposure and hands-on farming experience has shaped a philosophy focused on doing things smarter not just bigger.

This year, that philosophy paid off.

The Contest & The Result

Jared entered the NCGA Yield Contest in the Nitrogen Management class, a category with one simple rule: 180 pounds of nitrogen or less per acre. The rest is up to the farmer.

• Applied just 168 lbs of nitrogen (well under the 180 lb cap)
• Achieved a final yield of 308 bushels per acre
• Farmed conventionally using 28% nitrogen

Why This Field Performed

Timing turned out to be everything. The field was planted around May 13th (later than intended) which pushed pollination two weeks behind the rest of his corn.

"While the rest of our corn here was pollinating on the 4th of July... the average temperature for a week was 95 plus. When this field pollinated, I think it didn't hit much more than 75-80 at the most, and it really cooled at night."

That cooler pollination window made a significant difference, even as the season turned dry.

• Nearly no rain after August 1st, yet the crop held on and finished strong
• Cooler temperatures at pollination protected yield potential during the most critical window

Tools & Inputs That Made a Difference

• Used RDX from Redox Bio, a product aimed at improving nitrogen use efficiency and reducing plant stress (applied on part of the farm) with strong results
• Notably, this was some of the lowest fertility ground on the operation (below-ideal phosphorus and potassium levels) yet still produced 308 bushels

The Lesson That Changed His Thinking

The real turning point came from comparing this field against another farm where Jared pulled out all the stops trying to hit 400 bushels.

"I had 300 pounds of nitrogen, sprayed fungicide twice, side-dressed, used micros…just did everything you could think of."

That field yielded 293 bushels and cost roughly $200 more per acre.

"Applying more nitrogen at some point in time is kind of toxic to the corn plant. If it can't use it, it's taking it in and loading up the plant with more nitrate nitrogen and it's actually causing more stress."

• Too much nitrogen can hurt, not help
• A conclusion Jared now feels confident saying beyond just anecdote
• Reduced-rate field outperformed the high-input field on both yield and profitability

The Bigger Takeaway

Jared is quick to acknowledge that good weather and strong organic matter mineralization played a role "you need good weather conditions, and you need a lot of mineralization of organic matter to supply more nitrogen when you're cutting the rate." But the results reinforced what two decades in agriculture had been pointing toward: efficiency beats excess, and sometimes the best input decision is the one you don't make.