A lot of corn growers look for a silver bullet, some type of product or practice that can help them grow higher yields. Randy Hughes is confident he has a solution that will always deliver a payoff – an answer simple to articulate but sometimes difficult to implement: Education.
“I’ve always wanted to educate myself to do better,” says Hughes, a fourth-generation corn and soybean grower based in northeast Nebraska, near Royal.
Hughes started farming with his dad in 1977 and now works alongside his son. Together, they have steadily increased yields, partnering with independent agronomic advisers over the years to add more bushels.
“They’re focused on your farm’s success, not on a particular product or service, which gives them a lot of credibility,” he says.
Today, Hughes is working with national corn yield champions David Hula and Randy Dowdy at Total Acre. Under their tutelage, Hughes says corn yields across the family’s farm have increased 40 bu. to 50 bu. per acre. His highest yield has been just under 300 bushels per acre.
“Genetics have certainly helped, but a lot of it’s just been our increasing knowledge of timing and how to manage fertility better. Those have been huge,” he says.
Hughes recently joined Hula and Dowdy for their inaugural podcast, Breaking Barriers With R&D, for a lively discussion on growing high-yielding, profitable corn crops.
Click here to listen and watch Breaking Barriers, or sign up for a free trial to Farm Journal TV to access the podcast.
A Lifelong Student Of The Crop
Hughes says the first big step he made, based on Hula and Dowdy’s recommendations, was adding micronutrients to his corn fertility program about six years ago.
At the time, his highest corn yield topped 263 bu. per acre, largely a result of fine-tuning nitrogen, phosphorus and potash.
“We went on a five-year tear to figure out micronutrients,” Hughes recalls, initially applying dry iron (Fe), with soil test results and weekly tissue tests guiding the process.
University of Nebraska (UNL) Extension reports that iron deficiencies in Nebraska corn crops are most likely to occur on highly calcareous soils (pH higher than 7.8) or on soils leveled for irrigation where the subsoil has been exposed. Hughes grows both dryland corn and corn under center pivot irrigation.
UNL Extension adds that profit potential is especially good from a foliar application of iron when corn is expressing symptoms of iron chlorosis.
Soil pH Levels Are Vital To High Yields
Hula and Dowdy encourage farmers to keep soil pH in the neutral to 6.8 range across corn acres, and they recommend pulling soil tests in 1-acre grids to guide fertility decisions.
“If people are used to going across the field and watching a yield monitor vary significantly, say from 300 bu. down to 200 bu. in a pass, there’s a reason why that is and a lot of it has to do with soil fertility,” says Dowdy, who farms near Valdosta, Ga.
“Pulling samples in a 1-acre grid can help you identify where that variability is in the field better than a 2.5-acre grid or a zone sample can. It’s like the more detailed information you can get from an MRI versus an X-ray,” says Hula, who farms near Charles City, Va.
Another new practice Hughes recently implemented was adding humic acids in-furrow and again when sidedressing. That combination, he says, has made an 8-bu. to 10-bu. improvement to overall corn yields.
Dowdy says he’s confident, based on his own on-farm trials, that such products can support soil biology.
“I’m big into feeding the biology and having a carbon source out there, so I [always include] humic and fulvic acids,” he says.
Hughes says he’s still a couple of weeks away from planting corn, and he plans to continue refining and improving his fertility program this season.
“Everybody has some restraints, financially or maybe with the people you’re working with who do or don’t want to make changes. Those things are always factors, but these additions in our program have done us a lot of good,” he says.
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