With corn prices sitting in the basement, this is one of those seasons when many growers are likely struggling to stay the course and invest in their crop, says David Hula.
His advice: Keep on going, stay in the game.
“I want farmers to think about how they can finish the season well – stay in there through the fourth quarter of the game,” says Hula, who farms near Charles City, Va. “Eliminating stress, keeping the plant green, and providing adequate nutrition are things they can use to influence their corn-yield outcome.”
Here are some additional tips and recommendations Hula and fellow corn-yield champ Randy Dowdy offer to help farmers finish strong:
1. Evaluate Costs Versus ROI
It’s easy to get caught up in what a product or service costs versus what it can deliver. Hula and Dowdy encourage corn growers to understand their costs per bushel and the expected return-on-investment (ROI) from input investments.
“Spend money on things that have proven themselves, not on things you hope works but on things that you know works, that’s a big deal,” says Dowdy, who farms near Valdosta, Ga. “It makes those applications you need to make a little more palatable in these uncertain times.”
2. Provide In-Season Nutrition
Dowdy and Hula use tissue sampling to understand what their corn crop needs nutritionally in-season and make nutrient applications accordingly.
For growers who won’t do tissue tests, either because of timing or costs, they encourage growers to get with their local retailer and discuss later season inputs that could be a “sure thing” to support yield.
“Some potassium acetate is a good one. But I’m also not going to leave out my boron or my molybdenum, particularly with some nitrogen,” Hula says.
One of Hula’s go-to post-tassel applications is a product he makes himself and calls Kryptonite. The mixture can vary depending on the growing season, but it usually includes fertilizer, plant-growth stimulants such as fulvic acid and humic acid, fungicide, insecticide and various micronutrients.
“It’s an array of stuff,” Hula says. “The yield goal of a field kind of drives the rates used; we’ve had good success with it.”
One of Hula’s goals for using Kryptonite is to help his corn crop produce heavier kernels.
“As long as my corn comes in over 54.5 pounds, it doesn’t get discounted. But why not make our corn go from 56 to 58 or 61 to 63 pounds? You’ve got to do stuff to it to get that,” he adds. “You don’t need any more plants or rows around. You don’t need any more kernels. We’re just making them heavier by keeping the crop nutritionally balanced.”
3. Monitor Crops Regularly
It pays to scout fields and identify any weed, pest or disease issues earlier than later, Dowdy says.
He adds that before applying any herbicide, fungicide or other crop-protection product to find out the pH of the water used as the carrier.
“If you’re going to invest money in a product, you want to make sure it’s as effective as possible, and the pH plays a big role in performance,” Dowdy says.
As lifelong farmers and co-founders of Total Acre, Dowdy and Hula started their Breaking Barriers with R&D to challenge farmers to think differently to improve their corn and soybean performance. While known for growing record-breaking corn and soybean yields, their primary focus is maximizing profits on every acre. Watch the latest episode here on Farm Journal TV.
Your next read: Drones Help Soybean Grower Hit the Bull’s Eye of Efficiency
