Strategies Toward Very Low Nitrogen Cotton

For agriculture, nitrogen fertilizer poses an economic burden because of its cost, an energy burden because of the natural gas necessary to synthesize ammonia and a potential environmental burden when nitrous oxide or nitrate move off of the field. Because the cotton plant is inherently efficient with nitrogen fertilizer and because cotton’s most economically valuable products (oil and fiber) have low nitrogen densities, cotton cultivation has had a long history of production with limited nitrogen fertilizer inputs. With modern genetics and production tools, the cotton plant has an even greater potential to minimize the use of nitrogen fertilizer and mitigate environmental burdens created by rotational grain crops. A management approach that utilizes low-protein cottonseed combined with optimum densities for soil nitrogen extraction and precision application create opportunities to achieve very low nitrogen cotton and advance multiple efficiency, sustainability and profitability goals of the cotton industry.