Sidedressing manure into corn

Manure is being sidedressed into standing corn at an on-farm site.

The traditional windows of opportunity for manure application in Minnesota (fall and spring) have become increasingly shorter in the past few years due. Sidedressing into standing corn is one opportunity that has potential added benefits: reduced compaction as soil conditions are typically dryer in early June, savings on commercial fertilizers, and water quality benefits since the nutrients are being applied to a growing crop instead of a bare field. While there have been reports of a few farmers using manure for sidedress, the practice has not been widely adopted in Minnesota. If this practice is to be adopted as one tool in the toolbox to empty manure storage during difficult years, farmers will want more information on best management practices and economics.

This project involves on-farm and small plot research. The on-farm research allows us to use farm-scale, manure application equipment to see if this will work in real world situations. The small plot research allows us to test things in more controlled conditions.

Thanks to the MN Pork Board and MN Soybean and Research Promotion Council for partially funding this project in its first stages! We're excited to be continuing this work with support from the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative [grant no. 2020-68008-31410] from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

 Products:

Location of sidedressing experiments in Minnesota

Research locations in Minnesota.

Research Photos

Manure application into standing corn with a dragline hose system.
Aerial photograph of field that was sidedressed with manure.