One of the toughest parts of nitrogen management is the yield goal. Most growers look at this as a stagnant number rather than a moving target. After seeing some of these national yield goal contest numbers whether or not you believe the high numbers being thrown around I think we all can agree that we can raise better corn. We can talk ROI in another thread but if we can raise these higher yields what is limiting us? I believe that our biggest limiting factor is now stress. Heat stress at certain growth stages, cold stress early season and bad emergence, drought stress, heavy rains and water logged during early season these all play a role in stressing the plant. Spreading out the nitrogen into multiple applications helps us change our rates(and yield goal)depending upon stress levels. Each grower will think a little different on how each stress event affects yield so that’s the tough part. Maybe all this new AI will come up with an algorithm for us!?