NITROGEN
YEAR 1 / 5
Balance£0
Contract2.40 t
WeatherNORMAL
DRILLING
A FIVE-YEAR ROTATION
NITROGEN
The field remembers every gram you take out of it. Choose a rotation, a nitrogen rate and what you do with the residue, then watch a real soil cycle run through the season — fixation, mineralisation, uptake, denitrification, leaching. A bag of nitrogen starts at 85p a kilo and ends at £2.43. The audit on the last day grades the ground, not the harvest.
- 1–4 rotation
- QWERT rate
- ZXC residue
- Space sow
- ←→ turn the field
- Esc pause
MACHINES OFF
The field is waiting.
Nothing advances while you are standing here.
FIELD NOTES
Where the nitrogen goes.
- Mineralisation
- Microbes turn organic nitrogen in the soil into mineral nitrate. They work hardest when the soil is warm and damp and there is carbon to eat — about 56% moisture by capacity is the sweet spot.
- Immobilisation
- Straw-heavy residue ties mineral nitrogen back into the soil. Barley returns 62 parts carbon for every part nitrogen, so most of what it takes, it locks up again.
- Fixation
- Rhizobia on legume roots trade phosphorus for atmospheric nitrogen — up to 9 kg N/ha a fortnight, but only while there is both moisture and phosphate in the soil. Dry them out and they stop entirely.
- Denitrification
- Waterlogged soil goes anaerobic and nitrate becomes gas. It needs wetness, warmth and a surplus of nitrate, which is exactly what a wet year gives you.
- Leaching
- Nitrate moves with water out of the root zone. A dense cover crop scavenges what is left before the drains do.
- Residue
- Incorporating puts most of the carbon and nitrogen into the ground but vents some nitrate in the tillage pulse. Mulching keeps more nitrogen and holds soil moisture into next year but only half the carbon gets in. Baling pays and strips the soil.
Yield follows what is actually available, not a stat. The crop can only take about 45% of the free nitrate in one pass, and drought cuts both the demand it can meet and the water it can move through.
HARVEST 1
Barley, 2.9 t.
SOIL AUDIT
The ground, graded.
| Test | Result | Mark | Verdict |
|---|