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Residual nitrogen a factor when setting crop rotation for next year

An extension soybean agronomist says the drought left a lot of residual nitrogen in the soil.

And Seth Naeve with the University of Minnesota tells Brownfield farmers should account for that when determining next year’s crop rotation.

“Yes (nitrogen) is really expensive, but we definitely don’t want to waste it by putting soybeans on areas that are carrying a lot of residual N from low-yielding corn. So there’s a lot to think about.”

He says rising input costs are just one reason 2022 is shaping up to be a challenging year.

“That’s all the way through, getting parts on hand (or) getting the right equipment. You just have to do everything you can to make sure to be able to get the crop in and out next year, and have inputs available to cover those acres.”

Some analysts are predicting as many as three million acres switching from corn to soybeans in 2022 because of higher input costs.