A concept corn yield champions David Hula and Randy Dowdy often share with other growers is the idea that you can’t save your way to prosperity when producing corn, soybeans or any other crop. Their perspective: there is a baseline investment in fertility, and often other inputs, that a crop needs in order to produce and deliver the yield outcome you need.
But beyond that baseline, the two high-yield growers encourage farmers to look at where they can fine-tune practices and products used and reduce their out-of-pocket costs.
Here are four considerations they shared during their latest agronomic discussion on AgDay-TV that you can use to guide some of your key decisions this season.
1. Set specific yield goals for corn or other crops, then set those crops up for success with adequate nutrients.
Understand that “it takes pounds to make bushels,” says Hula, who’s based near Charles City, Va. “Let’s not just routinely cut out potash and other nutrients, we’ve got to have adequate fertility in place to fuel the crop. I always keep that fact in the back of my mind.”
2. Evaluate planting density and whether you can dial back the population.
With corn specifically, Hula is firm believer in fine-tuning plant populations to optimize quick emergence and the development of picket-fence stands.
“You know, if we’re not getting that 8 to 10 bushels of yield per 1,000 plants, then maybe you’re planting corn too thick,” Hula says. “If that’s the case, let’s consider dropping that population down slightly. When you start doing that, you’ll be saving some costs.”
Dowdy counters with a different perspective: “Let’s do a better job with the planter and get the plants all up at the same time,” he tells Hula.
3. Consider the timing for any fertility reductions you plan to make.
Hula says to give corn and soybeans adequate fertility on the front end so they get a strong start. After emergence, he says, is the time to evaluate stands and consider your options for nutrient reductions. He looks at stand quality on a field by field basis.
“Once the crop is up, game on. If you have poor emergence, then that’s just production corn or production soybeans, so you manage them like you normally would,” Hula says.
4. Conduct small-scale trials this season to make informed decisions about where to trim product investments.
“I’ve said many times, farmers never cut out anything they know that pays,” says Dowdy, who farms near Valdosta, Ga. “Sometimes the challenge is doing enough trials on your own farm to know if something pays for itself.”
In Dowdy’s case with growing corn, he has done enough on-farm trials that he is confident there’s a payoff using certain products that support soil biology. “I’m big into feeding the biology and having a carbon source out there, so I won’t cut out humic and fulvic acids. It just won’t happen.”
Whatever product or practice you use, he says if you haven’t evaluated its performance on your farm you run the risk of making cuts that could turn out to be costly instead of providing a benefit. It’s why Dowdy encourages growers to use a flag test to evaluate crop stands.
“If farmers use a flag test, they will understand which acres they can push,” he says.
The basic premise of using a flag test is to mark the corn with different-colored flags as soon as the plants emerge. Using flags, you can keep track of which ones emerged on the same day and which ones emerged in following days. From there, you can track how emergence timing impacted crop performance throughout the season.
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