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Residual Soil Nitrate Content And Profitability Of Five Cropping Systems In Northwest Iowa, Robert Dehaan, Matt Schuiteman, Ronald Vos

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Many communities in the Midwestern United States obtain their drinking water from shallow alluvial wells that are vulnerable to contamination by NO₃-N from the surrounding agricultural landscape. The objective of this research was to assess cropping systems with the potential to produce a reasonable return for farmers while simultaneously reducing the risk of NO₃-N movement into these shallow aquifers. From 2009 to 2013 we conducted a field-based experiment in Northwest Iowa in which we evaluated five cropping systems for residual (late fall) soil NO₃-N content and for profitability. Soil samples were taken annually from …