Excessive Moisture May Lead To Nitrogen Loss

With the excessive rainfall and standing water in some Manitoba fields, nitrogen loss can start to become a problem.

John Heard, field crop nutrition specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development says there are two forms of loss that can occur with excessive moisture.

"Once the nitrogen is in the nitrate form, if you get excessive rainfall on a sandy soil, you can have some leaching below the root zone or certainly below the seedling zone," he said. "If we're on heavier soils that are poorly drained and those soils are saturated we can sometimes get denitrification where that nitrogen will gas off and be lost."

Heard notes that in many cases, it is not too late to apply Nitrogen Rich Strips or "N" Stamps to assess potential losses and yield penalties.

He adds not everyone will have experienced losses, as nitrogen still the ammonium form would not leach out of the soil.