'Here' we thought we'd grabbed the brass ring years ago when we found we didn't 'have' to side-dress! Spring pre=plant N was great, but getting as good/better yields w/ the same rates of N in the fall put the death knell to the old side-dress rigs. I don't think there are more than a couple left in the whole county, now.

I did some experiments several years ago, knowing I'd never be able to fully give up fall applied N even if side-dress did 'work' - too small, odd shaped of fields & too many other things to be doing at the same period of time.

What I found, though, in the years that I messed w/ it, was that unless you have consistant & plentifull rainfall after the N app, it's pretty much the same thing yield wise as the N not having been applied.

Saw a side-dressed field just the other day next to fall applied field. The fall N was looking OK for the dry weather, the side-dress planted the same day was a fraction the size & looked as if it had never seen a drop of N in it's life. Pretty consistant to the things I used to see too....