Digital Farming Balboa Lab

Precision Nitrogen Management CIG – USDA  

This effort, launched in 2020, and On-Farm Experiments to test N management strategies started in 2021. An average of 30 experiments per year were conducted in the network. The project connects corn and wheat producers across Nebraska with access to cutting-edge technologies through on-farm research. The goal is for producers to get hands-on experience with new technologies to manage nitrogen more efficiently and evaluate how these technologies will work on their operation. This project is possible through a $1.2 million On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). 

Farmers could test four different technologies: crop model-based tools to manage N, crop canopy sensing for Corn N management, nitrification inhibitors for corn and split applications, Crop Canopy Sensing, and Aerial Imagery for Wheat N Management.