What are the costs for broadcasting nitrogen after seeding?
A custom fertilizing operation costs about $4.50 per acre. If gassing off is a concern, ammonium nitrate or Agrotain treated urea should probably be used rather than urea. Either of these products add about $0.05 to $0.09 per pound of N. Finally there is the cost due to inefficient fertilization since spring broadcast and incorporated N is about 20% less effective than N placed below the soil surface (Table 1). To put these costs into perspective, the additional expense of spreading 30 pounds of N per acre as ammonium nitrate after seeding (excluding the fertilizer itself), would be equivalent to the purchase of an extra 20 pounds of N per acre applied at seeding.2 2This calculation assumes urea costs $0.45/lb of N; floating costs $4.50 per acre or equal to 10 lbs of N/ac; ammonium nitrate or Agrotain treated urea adds $0.07/lb of N over urea, and based on a 30 lbs N/ac application rate costs $2.10/ac or equal to 4.6 lbs N/ac; and the broadcast fertilizer is 20% less effective than put
