Note: You can listen to my conversation with Mike Zwingman by clicking on the audio link above.

During Husker Harvest Days from Sept. 12 to 14, we recorded a live podcast interview with a new expert each day of the show. Day No. 2 saw a regular guest on the Nebraska Notebook podcast — now known as Down in the Weeds — Mike Zwingman.

In this episode, Zwingman, agronomy R&D Manager at Central Valley Ag, discusses some of the latest practices and research regarding nitrogen management, and some updates on how CVA's nitrogen and water advisory group has progressed over the last year.

"We're gaining a lot more confidence in nitrogen models. Regardless of which platform we're using on nitrogen models whether it be climate FieldView or Winfield United's Field Forecasting tool, or Adapt N, we're really getting a better feel for what's going on in season," says Zwingman. "Through the introduction of the OODA loop this August — that constant ‘observation, orientation, decision and action’ process — we've really helped our growers speed up the time from being able to notice the issue to making a decision and making an action."

And the learning curve has been pretty steep, Zwingman notes. "A lot of growers have been really willing to change or tweak some things, and a more open and more flexible mindset about how to go about doing that practice of nitrogen management. Growers moving from being all fall anhydrous to doing some split applications, or maybe doing two or three applications throughout the year, has really kind of advanced them into a new thought process of I've managed this, what's the next thing I can do?"

Zwingman adds it's important to "crawl before we walk, walk before we run." "Do the smallest, most achievable management step possible, and let's move onto the next one," he says. "Now we've got a handful of growers completely relying on models and intuition to tell them when to apply nitrogen."