Nitrate-N concentrations and losses are greatly affected by dry and wet climatic cycles. The greatest losses have been in wet years following abnormally dry years. Nitrate losses to subsurface drainage are greatly influenced by rate of nitrogen application, Randall says, but only moderately influenced by time of application. Randall says losses increase as the nitrogen rate increases, and are much greater in wet years than dry years. Randall says early fall application increases the potential for greater nitrate-N concentrations and losses in drainage water, especially since the majority of leaching is in early spring.
Tillage appears to have minimal effects on nitrate losses in drainage from flat, glacial till soils.
Randall says drainage volume increases with reductions in tillage, while nitrate-N concentrations are higher for conventional moldboard plow systems. On November 9 USDA will issue their November estimates, and the market already has a good idea of what USDA will project. There are numerous private firms that conduct their own surveys and they've already publicly issued those numbers. Even though you might not see a big price move that day, the market has probably already anticipated those report changes and prices have already moved. The market is already anticipating a decrease in both corn and soybean production on the November report.