Topdressing.biz News: Another way of topdressing is explained in the Joplin Globe - Online Editions

http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=231923&c=108

Concepts:

topdressing wheat, Joplin Globe, pounds, GreenSeeker, acre, corn, cost, farmers, plants, plots, planting, Oklahoma, Rendel, Editor, OSU.

Summary:

- Brent Rendel gets a lot of looks from people when he walks across one of his family's wheat fields in Northeast Oklahoma with something resembling a metal detector.He's not with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency looking for lead and zinc levels, nor is he looking for the odd chunk of metal or abandoned coins.They see him using a GreenSeeker Variable Rate Applicator meter on one of the 38 wheat fields farmed by his family.The meter feeds information to a computer program that reports on nitrogen needs for each field to get the desired level of grain production.The recommendation is based on growing conditions being ideal from the time the reading is made until grain is harvested.Data include things such as current Oklahoma weather information.The Ottawa County Extension Service office is one of 14 in the state where Oklahoma State University has provided a GreenSeeker unit at no cost.The unit would cost about $4,000 for individual farmers to buy, said Stan Fimple, Ottawa County extension agent.He attended a school last year to learn about the system and was successful in getting OSU to do GreenSeeker demonstrations on fields of wheat and corn in 2005."We will have it as long as farmers show an interest to use it," Fimple said.Using it means setting aside a small portion of each field where extra levels of nitrogen are applied in addition to the nitrogen put on over the field at planting.These plots become monitors for the GreenSeeker to measure in addition to the rest of the field.The Rendel family applies 25 pounds of nitrogen per acre at planting, and 75 pounds as topdressing about this time of year.The goal is to harvest 50 bushels of wheat per acre.The rule of thumb is two pounds of nitrogen can generate a bushel of wheat, he said.Last fall, he applied 25 pounds of nitrogen over all his wheat fields and then put on either 50, 75 or 125 pounds extra nitrogen in the test plots for each field.He finds some fields where plots with extra nitrogen can be seen with larger and greener plants, but no change in others.The field in the test matched the 40-bushel average for the farm.Roger Teal, OSU plant and soil scientist, talked about the GreenSeeker system at a meeting Feb. 16 in Afton.

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