摘要：Understanding the relationship between soil fertility dynamics and crop response is conceptually appealing. Even more appealing is comprehension of the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of these connections over a production surface and across seasons. Knowledge of these interactions is complicated because nutrient carryover dynamics and crop response to inputs are determined simultaneously on the one-hand, and sequentially on the other. A second problem enters when crops are rotated, for example, in the corn-soybean system commonly practiced in the Corn Belt. This paper examines the nutrient carryover-crop response nexus using data from a corn-soybean, variable-rate nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) experiment conducted over five years. Site-specific corn response to N and P and soybean response to P are simultaneously estimated with a P carryover equation. These estimates are used in a dynamic programming model to map site-specific optimal N and P fertilizer policies, soil P evolution, and profitability. The net present value of managing N and P site-specifically is compared to a strategy where these inputs are managed uniformly following extension guidelines. The results suggest that when P-carryover is managed, site-specific returns to the variable-rate strategies are higher than returns to a conventional, uniform strategy.
