Protein Flag Leaf Trial

How doesefficacy & crop safety compare between N-Hib 23, N-Fusion and Flexi-N as alate nitrogen application for protein response.

Dumbleyung, WA, 2017

Introduction

This trial was established near Dumbleyung, WesternAustralia to compare and demonstrate/investigate to the David Gray’s extendednetwork the efficacy, safety and flexibility of using nitrogen sources withurease inhibitors. Urease inhibitors prevent the conversion of urea to ammoniagas, thus giving the plant more time to take up the nitrogen. This gives oneflexibility as the requirement for rainfall post application is minimised,resulting in a more efficient use of N as less is volatilised.

Stollers N-Hib contains 23% amine nitrogen (with ureaseinhibitor), 6% Ca and 2% Mg - which has a cytokinin effect on the plant andbalances plant growth. N-Hib provides the benefits of amine nitrogen and helpsto further minimize volatilization and root burn by including the pH bufferingactivity of calcium and magnesium.

Nutrian’s N-Fusion contains 20.5% urea nitrogen (with ureaseinhibitor) and Molybdenum which forms enzymes to help the crop use nitrogen byconverting them into amino acids.

In this trial we compared the recommended rates of 12L/Ha ofN-Hib and N-Fusion to the grower standard of 30L/Ha flexi-N. In addition weapplied uneconomical rates of 50L/Ha to see what effect we could get.

Methodology

Treatment List

 Tmt No.    Product    Rate (Kg or L/ha)    Analysis (units applied)    1    Control    -    -    2    Flexi-N    30    12.66(N)     3    N-Hib    12    2.76(N) + 0.72(Ca) +0.24(Mg)    4    N-Hib    50    11.5(N) + 3(Ca) + 1(Mg)    5    N-Fusion    12    2.64(N)    6    N-Fusion    50    11(N)  

Trial Layout

Experimental Design

 Design:    Commercial Demonstration    Replications:    2    Plot length:    60m    Plot Width:    4m  

Site, Crop and Application Details

Assessment Methods

 Assessment Date:    Assessment    20/10/2017    Burn observations    20/11/2017    Yield + protein                   

Data Analysis

All data analysis in this report was conducted using Microsoft Excel. Simple means, analysis of variance and the student t-test were used to determine statistical significance using the least significant difference method with a 95% confidence interval.

Results

Yield

In figure 1 below there was a slight albeit statistically insignificant yield gain in all treatments compared to the control. N-Hib @ 50 L/Ha achieved the largest gain of 190Kg. The least significant difference (LSD) is 614 Kg.

Protein

In figure 2 below we see no protein response from a mid-booting application of nitrogen. The largest numerical gain being 0.05% which is unlikely to economically benefit a farmer. The LSD is 0.67%.

Return on Investment (ROI)

In this trial the cost of Stollers N-Hib and Nutrians N-Fusion products compared with the price of Flexi-N make them economically unfeasible - as can be seen in figure 3.

Conclusion

Spray application took place at 4pm with the crop at midbooting stage (a bit late). There was no crop burn or any other visualdifferences detected in any of the treatments. There were slight albeitstatistically insignificant differences in yield with the N-Hib @ 50L yielding190Kg more than the untreated control and 90Kg more than the second highestyielding treatment Flexi-N @ 30L/Ha.

The protein response between treatments was negligible andlikely due to the high yielding low input crop and the soft finish to theseason.

Doing a basic Return on Investment analysis (ROI) shows thateven though the 50L/Ha of N-Hib gave a yield response it was not enough tooffset the cost of application with only Flexi-N @ 30L be a financiallyfeasible option.

Further work needs to be done at various timings to see when the optimal window for late nitrogen applications is. 

Appendices

Rainfall