Indiana CCA Conference 2021 Presentation
 

Presentations

W11

Nutrient Management
Wed, Dec 15, 2021
11:00am to 11:50am

W4

Nutrient Management
Wed, Dec 15, 2021
4:00pm to 4:50pm

Finding Proof for Recommending Less N with Microbial Supplements: Research Challenges in Corn

Nitrogen fixation claims concerning new microbe products are hard to verify in actual field situations. The question arises as to whether these products might work consistently in lab or greenhouse environments, but less reliably in field situations. The research challenges to document a real yield gain or optimum N rate reduction in actual corn production situations are daunting. In this presentation, I will highlight, with examples, some of the university research challenges in field verification of microbe product claims concerning N fixation for corn. What factors do we need to take into account to predict the odds of an economic gain when farmers use such a product?

Speaker

Tony Vyn

Wallace Emeritus Professor of Crop Sciences
Purdue University
Biography

Dr. Tony J. Vyn is a recently retired professor from the Agronomy Department at Purdue University. Officially, his title is the “Wallace Emeritus Professor of Crop Sciences” because he held a chaired faculty position as the Henry A. Wallace Chair in Crop Sciences from 2018 to his retirement in December, 2023. Unofficially, he is a part-time cash crop farmer in Ontario and Indiana.  Tony grew up on a hog and cash crop farm near Ridgetown in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. He earned his degrees from the University of Guelph, (in Guelph, Ontario) after studying biology for 2 years at Trinity Christian College in Chicago.  He was a faculty member in the Crop Science Department at Guelph from 1987 until he joined the Agronomy Department faculty at Purdue University in 1998. During his 25-year career at Purdue, he and his research team members studied the physiology of crop (primarily corn) responses to tillage, rotations, nutrient rate/placement/timing, abiotic stress factors, and plant populations with modern and era hybrids.  He loved to find out when and how a plant change to management occurred so that he could better explain any final yield responses. Tony served as Co-Chair of the Indiana Crop Adviser Conference from 2003 to 2022. Dr. Vyn and his wife are blessed with 4 children who live with their respective families in the USA or Canada.