This may be what I'm experiencing. My plots that were planted 2 weeks prior to my neighbor look awful compared to his. Mine were planted into heavy straw/residue and his were disked clean. I actually applied more N at planting than he did. I planted using the same method on another property and have similar results. I've added 33 units of N to some of those plots and they are starting to look better.

Guess I need to incorporate more 33-0-0 at planting when I have a heavy residue at the surface.