One great thing about being a semi-retired farmer is that it gives you a business excuse to travel, investigate and bring home innovative ideas. That’s exactly what Virgil Gutshall, Sr., of Blain, Pa., did.

During a compost workshop at Ohio State University, the retired high school ag teacher learned about the ag college’s annual Manure Science Review, and took a money-saving lesson home from the 2013 and 2014 events. After closely studying corn field research trials incorporating liquid manure as a sidedressed treatment versus 28% liquid nitrogen, he and son Virgil, Jr., designed a manure injection system with an air seeder to underseed cover crops into knee-high corn on Beaver Ridge Farm.

In brief, five years of replicated data at the Ohio Ag Research and Development Center at Wooster indicated that corn yields were approximately 20 bushels per acre higher with sidedressed and incorporated hog manure than with incorporated 28% N. (See table) As noted in “Boost corn yields up to 15 bushels”, the Gutshalls lowered their yield gain expectations to 10 to 15 bushels per acre.

That yield gain meshes well with new research evidence from Purdue University and University of Illinois that today’s corn hybrids can respond to late-season N applications. And DuPont Pioneer research confirms that corn takes up 37% of N needs at tasseling or later.

Manure sidedressing benefits
Moisture from the manure proved especially beneficial during the three dry years, according to Glen Arnold, Ohio State Extension nutrient management specialist. Post-emergent manure applications were made at the V3 corn growth stage. The manure didn’t appear to reduce plot stands in any year.

The 28% UAN and swine manure rates were calibrated for 200 pounds of N per acre. The manure application rate was 5,200 gallons per acre.

The dairy manure application rate of 13,577 gallons per acre put down 130 units of N per acre, requiring an additional 28% UAN to reach the 200-pound N goal. Liquid hog manure has a much higher N content than liquid dairy manure.

2011-2015 Manure Sidedressing Research Plots

Source: Ohio State University