For the first time ever, my farmer husband is letting me take over my very own 60 acres - for the first post on obtaining land, read here.

All plants, including corn, need nitrogen to grow. Nitrogen is a chemical, the seventh element on the periodic table, and literally surrounds us wherever we go. It is an odorless, colorless gas that makes up nearly 80% of our atmosphere.

With so much of it in the air, it was surprising to me to learn the challenges that come with getting enough nitrogen for our food and fuel crops. Washington State University explains here that nitrogen is likely the most limiting factor in our ability to grow more food globally.

The nitrogen that is in the air is not usable by most plants - we have to get that nitrogen into the soil. And that is exactly what I got to do today on my 60 acres!

When a plant grows on our farms, it takes up both micro and macro nutrients. When we harvest the crop and remove it from the farm, we also take away those nutrients such as nitrogen. To keep our farm sustainable and profitable, we have to manage those nutrients each year to make sure we are putting back into our soils whatever we have taken away.

So to prepare my 60 acres for corn that will be planted this spring, today I applied Anhydrous Ammonia (AA) - NH3.  This is a colorless gas that is made up of one part nitrogen to three parts hydrogen.  We also use N-serve, a nitrogen stabilizer that helps to keep the nitrogen where my corn will need it. 
 
We elect  to use AA as one of our sources for nitrogen because it's readily available, efficient and cost effective.  The downside to using AA is that when it is applied it does kill off many of our organisms living in the soil, in the immediate vicinity of where it is applied.  This is because it shocks the pH of the soil so quickly, but this is only in an oval shaped area right around where the gas is applied in the soil. 
 
We spend a lot of time growing our soil bugs and earthworms so this feels like it's setting us back a little.  Luckily, studies show that by the time we go to plant, the soil will have recovered back to its thriving state.
 
Organic farmers do not have the option of using AA because it is synthetic.  They instead rely heavily on animal manure to add back in nitrogen.  Washington State explains how even organic farms are still dependent on chemically fixed nitrogen because of the nitrogen cycle.  Most manure applied comes from animals fed diets that were grown using chemically fixed nitrogen.  For the food and fuel production we need today, chemically fixing nitrogen is necessary - but safe as well.

​I used a tractor - a John Deere 8640 - to pull an applicator bar, and behind it the tank.  The tank contains the AA.  It runs through a hose, into the applicator bar where it is injected down into the soil.
 
A knife leads the injector, cutting the gas down into the soil, and then two closing wheels come behind to cover the soil back up.  It's important that the soil gets covered back up otherwise all the nitrogen will escape right back into the atmosphere - where my corn can't use it! 
 
It's also important that we try to put AA on when the soil is around 20% moisture.  The soil should form a weak ball at the right moisture levels.  For more application tips, read here!  If there are no water particles to react with, the AA will travel further down into the soil to find water - possibly out of reach of my corn!  
 
Today we put on 120 pounds to the acre.  This is a lower application rate than normal - usually between 150 - 200 pounds per acre. This is because I have something else working for me as well.

My sixty acres actually started being prepared for this corn crop last fall when Matt planted a cover crop - a combination of radishes, turnips, cereal rye, alfalfa, and crimson clover.  These plants grew all fall, even into the winter.  We never harvested them because they worked in different ways. 
 
For more information on how our cover crops work, read my post here!
 
Focusing on nitrogen, three of those cover crops helped us to be able to lower our rate of AA.   First, the radishes have very long tap roots - a root sent straight down into the soil, sometimes up to six feet in length.  These tap roots grab onto nitrogen further down in the soil and then bring it up to the radish.  Because we do not harvest the radishes (they decay right back into our soils) that nitrogen will now be available to my corn.

​The alfalfa and crimson clover also helps with our nitrogen.  Alfalfa and clover, like our other main cash crop soybeans, are a legume and legumes can actually fix their own nitrogen. Clover is known as one of the best nitrogen fixing crops available. These plants actually grab onto nitrogen from the air and “fix” it onto the plant.  Again, because we did not harvest the alfalfa or clover and it is still there in my soil, all of the nitrogen it fixed is now available to my corn as well. 

For now, my 60 acres should have adequate nitrogen to get my corn started off right!  We will apply a booster of nitrogen later in the growing season with a practice called side-dressing. 
 
The next piece of equipment to run over my field will be the sprayer!  Stay tuned!

(Today was also our 7th wedding anniversary so we had to take a picture together in the tractor!)

Sustainability is a buzz word. Consumers often associate the word with very small or organic operations.  There are a lot of pieces to true sustainability, but nearly all farmers have the ultimate goal of leaving their farm to their children and grandchildren.  In fact, most farmers rank this as a priority over short term profit!

So how are we making that happen?  How are modern, large scale farms sustainable? How are farms far away from you suistanble?

I am going to explore what we do here at Uptown Farms over the next several weeks with #SustainabilitySundays!

The picture you are looking at above is showing two of the most exciting technologies on our farm - "no till" production and cover crop usage!

This week, let's look at "no till" farming!  

I see comments in online discussions about how farmers today are "too lazy" to plow their fields and just rely on chemical. Let's look at what is actually going on when you see a field that has not been plowed.

For years farmers thought it was necessary and beneficial to till or plow the soil prior to planting. Studies now show us this isn't true and that tillage, especially deep tillage, can really have adverse effects on our soil health as well as the soil organisms that we need for long term productivity.

Plowing can create what is called a "plow pan", which can stop water and root systems from being able to penetrate into the soil profile as effectively as they should.

Newer equipment and GMO technology allows us to maximize the benefit of "no till".

So in this picture you are seeing the remains of the 2014 corn harvest.  That "trash" serves a few purposes for us. 

First, it helps on top of the soil.  It keeps our soil covered which minimizes weed growth, helps to regulate soil temperature and helps to retain moisture in our soil. We take soil coverage even farther by using cover crops (discussed more next week).

Second, as the corn trash is slowly decomposed by our ever growing earth worm populations, it adds to the organic matter inside the soil profiles.  Organic matter (OM) provides food sources for the thousands of microorganisms that we need to exist in our dirt.  OM also helps control soil compaction and retain water within the soils!

Plowing does incorporate most of the OM into the soil, but in a much quicker period than the the slower and more natural process allowed by no till.

One of the most important benefits of no till is significant reduction of soil loss due to erosion and significant reduction of run off from chemical.  This allows for the safer and reduced application of chemicals to our farms.

So next time you see a field that looks like a farmer was to lazy to plow, now you know this is actually part of a long term soil health and conservation plan!

On top of the corn stubble, you are seeing cereal rye.  We do not harvest the rye for a cash crop here, but use it as a cover crop.  Our cover crops are planted after harvest and compliment the no till production.   They will be terminated either shortly before or after the cash crop (in this case it would have been soybeans) is planted.

To me, there is nothing more exciting than cover crop technology and I will discuss it more in depth next week!

Tonight we went out to see Matt for a bit, because we haven’t seen him much at all the last few weeks.  He finally finished up calving heifers, but just in time to start field work! 

It has warmed up enough to start the first phase of spring planting, applying anhydrous ammonia.  Matt and his Dad apply for their farms as well as custom apply, meaning they are hired to put it on for other farmer’s as well.

Anhydrous ammonia (NH3) is a synthetic form of nitrogen, used in corn and milo production because when we harvest a crop we take nitrogen from the soil that must be replaced.  Nitrogen is a naturally occurring chemical that makes up 78% of the earth’s atmosphere. 

NH3 (meaning simply its one part nitrogen to three parts hydrogen) is the most cost effective and efficient (therefore the most environmentally friendly) source of synthetic nitrogen.  It’s stored in the nurse tanks you often see being pulled slowly down the road by a truck or out in the field behind a tractor.  In the tank the anhydrous is in liquid form and kept under high pressure to keep it as a liquid.

The tank is pulled behind a tractor and a combination of high tech computer system and application system work to inject the chemical into the soil about 8-10 inches deep where it comes into contact with moisture and instantly turns into a gas.  It is then absorbed into the soil moisture.  At this point, there is no difference between the synthetic nitrogen and natural nitrogen.  

Corn, a grass, requires nitrogen to grow.  Our other most common row crop, soybeans, are a legume and actually generate their own nitrogen.

The internet is full of bloggers who like to tell you that all farmers should switch to use of natural nitrogen (manure) and using synthetic fertilizers are a hazard to our environment.  

There is one big problem with that idea – the amount of manure we would need.  If we were to replace the 11 million tons of anhydrous used each year with manure, this would require 1 billion more cattle!  Even more shocking, those cows would require an estimated 2 billion more acres of land!

We simply cannot meet the world’s corn demand without using synthetic fertilizers.   Anhydrous ammonia has the highest efficiency (meaning more of it is absorbed by the plant) than any other source, making it not only the most cost effective option – but the safest option for our soils and health as well!

Farmers are very concerned with applying fertilizer using the best practices to keep cost and waste low, and profits and overall safety high!