Jason Richters' nitrogen program has seen a drastic transformation over the last five years. In that time, he went from applying all of his nitrogen in the form of anhydrous in the fall to applying no anhydrous. Instead, he applies a starter fertilizer at planting, followed by a fertigation or high-clearance applicator at V5 to V8, before a final fertigation treatment around tassel.

"Within five years, it's been quite a change," says Richters, who farms in York and Seward counties. "I wanted to see how we could do things better and started to believe we could do things better."

It started in 2012, when Richters first began working with Mike Zwingman, agronomy R&D manager at Central Valley Ag. "In one of the very first conversations Jason and I had, Jason said he knew farming more acres really wasn't the best long-term solution for him, so he wanted to get better at farming the acres he has," Zwingman says.

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For Richters, that improvement comes by taking one step at a time; it's something he found out soon after taking the first step in changing his nitrogen program.

"We have tried changing it all at once and lost focus. The first year Mike and I worked together in 2012, we threw the kitchen sink at the crop and it yielded really well," he says. "What we learned that year is we weren't sure if the additional yield came a little from each of those changes or if one of those changes was much more important to improved yield than the others."

However, there were some key takeaways that year. Richters saw for the first time the benefits of using fertigation and strip till, and pushing planting populations. With strip till, he realized he could apply urea and MAP (monoammonium phosphate) closer to where the plant's roots are taking nutrients up, while requiring much less horsepower than knifing in anhydrous.

"It's almost entirely about getting the placement right, but I've also learned to love the seedbed or the strip I'm planting into. The stands are better than they used to be. It makes it easier for the roots to get deeper, and I can put nutrients on where the crop wants them," Richters says. "With the strip-till machine I use, it takes much less horsepower compared to anhydrous. I can't say I get across more acres in less time, because with urea, you have to fill up more often, so you lose some efficiency."

However, fertigation was the biggest driver, he adds. Fertigation frees him up to make several applications in-season, while pushing populations in certain parts of the field helps him match up the sink-source relationship, or the plant population with the amount of nitrogen needed to meet his yield goal.

These practices have become a part of his nitrogen management plan every year. While the adoption curve for Richters happened fairly quickly, Zwingman notes the goal is incremental improvements.

"The simple fact is every farmer we deal with is successful with what they do. Nobody is out there intentionally overapplying nutrients," says Zwingman. "When you're having discussions about changing your program, you can't let good management practices hold you back from the best management practices. The fact of the matter is you can say I'm not doing anything wrong, but I think there are a lot of things I can do better. You don't have to be 100% better. We just need to make every decision 1%, 5% or 10% better."