Here are some to the take-home yield tips that farmers brought home from the Illinois Corn College events hosted in late July.
- The proper depth to run tillage to achieve full shatter. It’s worth taking a shovel to the field to dig behind equipment and evaluate performance.
- Look at your corn farming as a total system. From spring tillage to harvest, everything you do can effect next year’s crop.
- Test plot data is invaluable.
- I didn’t know the dead root ball can be toxic and how when planting on the row in no-till corn-on-corn can cause yield decreases.
- To check my weight rating on the truck and receiver hitch.
- Pay attention to the timing of your nitrogen application with the weather and learn about phosphorus and potassium and how those effect the corn plant in the different stages of growth.
- Field drainage can be a management tool and tile depth and spacing is important.
- The potential is huge with variable-rate fertilizer and variable-rate population. Also, how to execute VRT in the field.
- As a strip-tiller, understanding the micronutrients is very important. Being able to talk with other farmers about strip-till is also valuable.
Make Plans to Attend this Upcoming Corn College Event
There’s still time to head to the field with Farm Journal in 2011:
Corn College “Fundamentals”: Aug. 3 to 4, Coldwater, Mich.
The Farm Journal Corn College Fundamentals session provides practical, hands-on training to help corn growers advance their production skills, increase yields and improve their profitability. This session is geared for the first-time Corn College attendee and will provide them with the core knowledge of how to use the Systems Approach on their farm. Click here to register.
