Crop N Guidelines: Yield Potential

The corn yield potential is the expected corn yield (in bushels/acre) 3 to 4 years out of 5 under good management.

The corn yield potential depends on the factors, below.

• Soil type: soils vary in texture, drainage, native fertility, organic matter, structure, temperature, etc. All of these factors have an impact on how well a crop's root system can develop and take in essential elements for growth (e.g. water, nutrients, etc.).

• Artificial drainage (drained or undrained): poor drainage limits nutrient availability and the ability of plant roots to scavange for essential nutrients. The presence or lack of artificial drainage (e.g. tile drainage) in a field may shift the yield potential, depending on the native drainage of the soil.

Through years of research across New York State, corn yield potentials have been determined for every soil in the state. The corn yield potentials are housed in the Cornell database. Higher yield potentials can be used to calculate corn N requirements if 3 years worth of records of higher yields are present. To get the gross N requirement, the yield potential is multiplied by 1.2, because that's the average N content of corn at optimum yield.

The table, below, contains examples of yield potentials for a range of soils in the Cornell database. Move your mouse over each of the soil names for a description of each soil.

To read more on this subject: Nitrogen Guidelines for Field Crops in New York (section 4.1).