Published: September 19, 2008 11:34 am            

Sky’s the limit? Start thinking 300-bushel corn

Originally published in the Sept. 19, 2008, print edition.

A couple of Illinois corn men think Minnesota farmers are selling themselves short if they’re happy with 200-bushel corn; they want them to be at least 50 percent happier.

As part of a national tour, Chris Kauffman of AgVenture PureLine Seed in Princeton, Ill., and Jerry Hartsock of Cutting Edge Consulting in Geneseo, Ill., told a group of Minnesota producers they need to develop the mental attitude to make 300-bushel corn a reality.

How do you get a 300-bushel mentality? “Well it starts by believing that you are an exceptional corn producer,” Kauffman said. “We have to outrun our neighbors. We have to beat our neighbors by at least 20 percent.”

He mentioned Herman Warsaw, the McLean County, Ill., producer who five times as exceeded the 300-bushel-per-acre yield with a top of 370 bushels per acre to date, and Iowa farmer Francis Childs who reached 442 bushels per acre in 2002.

“Some of you believe yield is out of your control. With that belief you never will grow 300-bushel corn,” Kauffman said. “Once you take total control of your corn program, you’ll do 20 percent better yields.” He projected that by 2030, the U.S. national corn yield will be 300 bushels per acre.

Maximizing yield

Hartsock acknowledged a 300-bushel strategy is a bigger challenge in the northern Corn Belt because of the fewer “growing degree days” to work with. He insisted, however, that there are still techniques to apply on most Minnesota soils that can raise that yield bar by 50 to 60 bushels.

“I believe we are giving up 10 to 20 bushels per acre just on plantability,” Hartsock said, with good plantability meaning 100 fully developed ears for every 100 plants. This requires planting slowly. His rule is the “5 & 2” system — driving no more than 5 mph and planting 2 inches deep.

He’s not as concerned about spacing in the row as he is about perfect depth control and uniform emergence of every kernel. “That’s an easy way to pick up 10 to 20 bushels,” he said. Despite the convenience of certain trait technologies — or perhaps because of them — most growers don’t kill weeds soon enough.

Hartsock also stressed better nitrogen management, not just a one-shot N application for the season. He suggested early, mid- and a late-season N application, with three different forms of N to get the job done, and a foliar program with fungicides, too.

Fungicides on corn, already standard procedure for top producers in Indiana and Illinois, according to Hartsock, need to become part of that 300-bushel strategy in Minnesota.

“You need a system complementing your overall corn program, not something inherited from a past crop on that soil. Fungicides protect your crop from diseases that take little bites out of your yield. Corn is king here. You need to treat it that way,” he said.

He said his top growers are in their fields at least 20 times during the season. “They detest surprises,” he said. His top clients do four and five N applications, and two foliar fungicide applications are also normal. Continuous corn is common with these high-yield champions; they don’t let a corn-soybean rotation disrupt their disciplined production inputs for corn.

Early harvest

Their top producers also harvest early, at 26 to 30 percent moisture, to avoid “phantom yield loss” by letting nature dry their corn in the field. Purdue University work shows a 1 percent yield loss per point of moisture from 30 percent down to 18 percent in the field. That 12 percent drop equates to 24 bushels per acre on 200-bushel corn. “You do your own arithmetic on what it’s costing you to let Mother Nature dry your corn in the field rather than harvest early,” Hartsock said.

Corn is a living organism with respiration continuing to happen. Until that corn is in your bin, it is nature’s corn. Dried down to 16 to 18 percent in the field, some harvest loss is almost inevitable, he said.

Hartsock doesn’t talk plant populations but rather ear populations per acre. He said that in his travels across the Corn Belt he never sees high enough ear populations. With the good, well-drained soils of southern Minnesota he believes producers should set as a minimum 34,000 to 35,000 harvest ear populations, especially if triple-stack traits are part of their genetic program. “Counting plants and counting ears are two different things and they don’t correlate.”

How big a yield is possible? Their 300-bushel-per-acre figure will happen, Harstock said, and soon. “Over the next 10 years agriculture will become the ‘golden industry’ of this world.”

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.