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In-Season Decision Support Tools For Estimating Nitrogen Side-Dress Rates For Maize (Zea Mays L.)
B. Chim
Virginia Tech
Nitrogen fertilizer has been synthetically produced to nourish plants, increase yield and improve harvest quality. One of the way to increase NUE is called split application which is apply portion of N fertilizer from the beginning and apply another portion during vegetative stage (V4-V6). Improving accuracy of corn side dress N rate recommendations can improve profitability and reduce potential negative environmental impacts of over fertilization. The objective of this experiment is to compare yield and NUE of side-dress rates prescribed by: 1) the Virginia Corn Algorithm (VCA); 2) the Maize-N computer simulation model; and 3) the Nutrient Expert (NE) for Maize computer simulation model to the standard rate growers would currently apply. Total of four field experiments were established in 2012 and 2013 with four replications in a randomized complete block design. Treatments evaluated included a complete factorial of four different pre-plant rates (0, 44.8, 89.6 and 134.4 kg ha-1) with the three different simulation model-prescribed rates and the standard Virginia method. In 2012 data showed that NE has the highest Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) which produced 55 kg grain yield with every kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer applied. However data in 2013 showed two locations have the highest NUE by using Virginia Corn Algorithm with GreenSeeker sensor.
 
Keyword: Nitrogen, Precision agriculture, Maize, Side-dress rate, NUE