New techniques are proving the importance of corn plant population to soil-based nitrogen management as no-tillers seek to get the most profit out of each acre.

We’ve heard about contest yields that sounded unbelievable — and for most of us were generally unachievable.

Having no-tilled for 8 years, Tim Goodenough has moved away from using anhydrous ammonia, 28 percent nitrogen and urea as nitrogen sources. Since 2005, he’s successfully used the ESN (Environmentally Smart Nitrogen) product. This polymer-coated nitrogen is a slow release product that is activated by moisture and heat, says the West Salem, Wis., grower who no-tills 1,300 acres.

The shift to continuous no-tilling on our farm has more or less followed the development of planting equipment suited to this method of farming. Rock County, Wis., which borders northern Illinois, is the top soybean producing county in the state.

Jim Koepke would be the first to tell you that he doesn’t consider himself a no-tiller. “There’s plenty of tillage activity going on in our soils, it’s just that the tillage is being done by earthworms instead of iron,” he says. “And those earthworms do a tremendous job.”