Nitrogen fertilizer is among the most critical inputs to crop production—and one of the costliest. When applied at the optimum rate, nitrogen boosts productivity and profitability and avoids the environmental costs of excess application. However, finding the optimum application rate can be a challenge: it can vary by more than 100% from field-to-field and year-to-year.

The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative is a private-public partnership with a vision to provide Iowans with the best nitrogen science in the world for the benefit of productivity, profitability, and environmental performance.

We are working alongside agricultural service providers, farmers, and their advisors to design, execute, and interpret hundreds of coordinated on-farm, scientifically robust nitrogen rate trials every year. These trials provide data that helps us understand the interactions among genetics, weather, soil type, and management, and how those impact cropping system outcomes.