As corn transitions from vegetative to reproductive stages, nitrogen within the plant also changes direction. During vegetation the plant’s duty was to build out the photosynthetic collection system – deploy leaves, filled with chlorophyll, to capture solar energy and continue to build. But now in the reproductive phase, energy is directed to maintaining and filling the pollinated kernels on the ear(s). Yield has three components – Plants per acre, kernels per plant, a

After a waterlogged spring in south-central Iowa, Bob Gunzenhauser breaks down when soil nitrate sampling earns its keep — and where tools like crop modeling and remote sensing pick up the slack.