Background Information
- Participants chose their own nitrogen rates, based on what they would normally apply to the field. Their regular rate is considered the “medium N” rate, and they chose the high and low rates that they were interested in exploring. All additional management practices at each site were consistent across treatments and with remainder of the field.
Summary
In 2025, all FN01, 02 and 03 had medium to high soil nitrate levels. High amounts of nitrogen fertilizer were not needed to achieve good quality
and yield, but it does give a perspective on the data collected.
2024 was the first year for the Flax Nitrogen Rate protocol as an experiment by the one participating farmer, who wanted to test the effects of very high nitrogen rates in their flax crop. Yields remained flat, though the “mid” range with 80 lbs N/ac outyielding the higher and lower nitrogen rates by 1.4 bu/ac. This does not reflect an economic benefit to the added nitrogen. There was interest in 2025 to continue this project, but more site years will be required to attain reliable results. Only one in five site years had yield results of statistical significance (2025-FN04). This field did have a significant range in nitrogen rates, so one would expect to have a greater difference in yields to reflect those rates. Incidentally, this field also tested “very high” in spring soil nitrate levels. The addition of high nitrogen rates may have been reflected in yields more in a field that had lower soil nitrate levels..