Performance and refinement of nitrogen fertilization tools

Improving corn (Zea mays L.) N management is pertinent to economic and environmental objectives. However, there are limited comprehensive data sources to develop and test N fertilizer decision aid tools across a wide geographic range of soil and weather scenarios. Therefore, a public-industry partnership was formed to conduct standardized corn N rate response field studies throughout the U.S. Midwest. This research was conducted using a standardized protocol at 49 site-years across eight states over the 2014 to 2016 growing seasons with many soil, plant, and weather related measurements.

Methods
This dataset contains 49 site-years (2014–2016) of corn grain yield responses to added N fertilizer from eight U.S. Midwest states. Each site-year followed a standardized protocol which included the same 16 N rates, four replicates, two application timings (all at planting or the majority sidedressed; Table 1), N source (ammonium nitrate) from the same fertilizer production plant, site selection criteria (low and high productive soils within each state), data management, collaboration procedures, and explanatory variables. Additional background information and details about the standardized materials and methods, data management, and collaboration protocols are discussed in

Kitchen, N. R., Shanahan, J. F., Ransom, C. J., Bandura, C. J., Bean, G. M., Camberato, J. J., Carter, P. R., Clark, J. D., Ferguson, R. B., Fernández, F. G., Franzen, D. W., Laboski, C. A. M., Nafziger, E. D., Qing, Z., Sawyer, J. E., & Shafer, M. (2017). A public–industry partnership for enhancing corn nitrogen research and datasets: Project description, methodology, and outcomes. Agronomy Journal, 109(5), 2371–2388. https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2017.04.0207

A summary of scientific findings and future use of this data can be found in

Ransom, C. J., Clark, J., Bean, G. Mac, Bandura, C., Shafer, M. E., Kitchen, N. R., Camberato, J. J., Carter, P. R., Ferguson, R. B., Fernández, F., Franzen, D. W., Laboski, C. A. M., Myers, D. B., Nafziger, E. D., Sawyer, J. E., & Shanahan, J. (2021). Data from a public–industry partnership for enhancing corn nitrogen research. Agronomy Journal, agj2.20812. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20812