Wow! Where did all this corn come from?

With some area's experiencing HUGE yields this year, while outstanding in the field beside your combine, you might be wondering Where did all this corn come from?

There are lots of factors to consider but it seems that some areas have won the weather lottery and their corn is running well over 200 bushels. Of course, we can't change the weather so what other factors were right this year to bring in the big yields?

Variety Traits: It all starts with the seed. 9 times out of 10, the top yields are coming from a traited variety. Now this does not mean that the variety with the most traits is going to out perform every time. Rather, the right traits need to be used in the right situation. For example, if you are in an area with a high WBC population this past year, perhaps you need to think about a Hurculex variety for next year. If you are in a corn on corn situation, give the crop what it needs with the proper traits or seed treatment.

CHU's: This year, from May 15th to Oct 25th, the Staffa area accumulated 287 more CHU's than the 30 year average for a total of 3193. Varieties like Pioneer's P0126 and P0474 are running 230+ bushel in some plots. These varieties are in the 3100 range. I am not saying plant all your acres to late day corn but it may payoff to plant a portion of your acres to a variety later than the average CHU's for your area.

Weed Control: A clean field is going to yield more than a dirty field. As well, a clean field from pre-emergence is going to yield more than a field sprayed with an application of Glyphosate at 3 or 4 leaf. Set up Chemical programs are vital for giving your corn the start that it needs. You can not rely on a couple of passes of Glyphosate to give you the big yields.

Nitrogen: In a year with all other variables pointing towards a big yield, do not leave your corn hungry for more nitrogen. 150lbs/ac N is not enough for a 200+ bushel crop. If you don't want to spend the extra money on commercial fertilizer, look at N values from clover and other crops. Also, pay attention to when and how you apply your manure to get the most N available to the crop.

Compaction: One years ruts are the next years yield drag, and the next years, and the next years... If you must be in the field when wet, do everything possible to limit compaction.

The Weather 649: You never know, some years you win with that million dollar rain at emergence to break the crust, and at silking to aid pollination, and at cob fill to bring the test weight up ... and every other timely rain.

Disclaimer: These are just a few factors that effect corn yield, following these guidelines will not guarantee a large corn yield. Every crop is different.

Out Standing on the Web

As promised, here are some of my favorite Non-OMAFRA agronomy related websites.

www.pioneer.com
or for your smart phone:
https://www.pioneer.com/home/site/mobile/

This site is all things Pioneer. Tabs include: Products, Agronomy, Livestock Feed and Nutrition, Programs and Services, Markets and Analysis, and News. You can find your local Pioneer Rep, calculate your CHU to date, and access local field trials. There is also very good market information and crop reports available. The mobile site is pared down for easy reading on your smart phone. If you have a Black Berry, Pioneer also offers a free ap for you to download.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/

For those addicted to the weather like me, this site is a necessity. Forecasts are broke down into hourly, 24 hour, 7 or 14 day. This site also offers a larger list of Ontario locations than Environment Canada. There is a mobile version available as well.

http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/Current.aspx

Another weather site, this site offers American radar with coverage into southwestern Ontario. Forecasted surface analysis is also available out to 48 hours. With the "pan and zoom" feature you can get very accurate detailed radar for your area. Precipitation shows as snow, mixed or rain.

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html?id=WSO

I am sure that most of you have this site bookmarked but I thought that I would include it for those that don't. Environment Canada's Exeter radar page is a must have tool for those in the area. Just be careful, depending on what the radar is set on - rain or snow, it can be a little distorted. If it is raining and the radar is set on snow, you could be thinking it is monsoon season!

www.refugeselector.ca

As we hear more and more about Corn Root Worm developing resistance in the US Midwest, we need to continue to be diligent about our refuge requirements when planting BT corn. The refuge selector is a great tool to let you know how much is needed, where it needs to go in the field, and what varieties of refuge are available to compliment your BT pick.

www.youtube.com

...because there is always a video to cheer you up and make you laugh when it is raining at harvest or the market went down...

Linked Up

Sometimes while out standing in a field, you need a little more info on the bug you see on your soys, or on the amount of Nitrogen your field has from last years manure application. In this blog post, I am going to share some of my favorite go to OMAFRA websites for agronomic information - some more tools for the tool box.

http://bautebugblog.com


Tracey Baute is the Field Crop Entomologist-Program Lead with OMAFRA. She maintains this website and posts valuable up to date information on the bugs that are effecting Ontario's field crops. She provides info on threshold values, clear photos for identification and pesticide information. There is a easy to search archive of her blog entries for anything that you may have missed. You can also follow Tracey on Twitter.

www.gocorn.net

Everything to do with Ontario corn, and then some! This web site is maintained by Greg Stewart, OMAFRA Corn Specialist and sponsored by the Grain Farmers of Ontario.

Relevant information dealing with topics such as tillage, fertility, weed management and storage can be found under the index. The last five years of the Ontario corn yield trials can be found in the reports section.

My favorite section is the interactive tools section. Here you will find the Ontario Manure Nutrients Calculator. Ran in Excel, this spreadsheet is easy to use with your manure sample or with generic values for all types of livestock found in Ontario. Take some time and play around with the spreadsheet. It is an eye opener to see how changing the month of application from August to October or time till incorporated effects the amount of Nitrogen available to next years crop.

Another great interactive tool is the Corn Hybrid Selector. With this tool you can take the Ontario trials and select varieties to go head to head. It is a helpful tool while selecting what variety to grow on your farm.

www.weedpro75.com

Weed Pro 75 is the easy to use online version of OMAFRA Publication 75. Rather than paging thru pub 75, this website allows you to select crop, application method, weed spectrum and density thus giving you the most economic and cleanest field option. Based on current herbicide values and the most recent herbicide trial results, this website is up to date and very useful.

Of course, before you can use the Weed Pro 75 website, you need to know what weed you are trying to kill, so for that I use:


www.ontarioweeds.com

This website is the online version of OMAFRA's weed identification guide. Here you will find complete descriptions, detailed drawings and colour photos of most of Ontario's weeds. If you have a weed that is not listed, you can submit photos and a description to the site and OMAFRA staff will offer suggestions.

www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/cropline/index.html#audio

Here you can find the last few crop line recordings in downloadable Audio MP3 format. You can save them to your MP3 or IPhone for listening to in the field. Since the crop line only offers the latest recording when you call in, this gives you a chance to listen to any that you may have missed.

These are just a few of the sites I use through out the season. Let me know if you have any other helpful sites.

My next post will list my favorite non-OMAFRA sites.

Ripening or dying?

While out standing in a field of corn this time of year you may be thinking "did my corn die prematurely or is this just normal dry down?".

Here are some answers from our area Pioneer Agronomist Blair Freeman.

There’s lots on Northern Leaf Blight (NLB) out there depending where you are… also lots of anthracnose dieback and stalk rot. Remember that once these diseases set it, they open the door for other saprophytic fungi to invade… eventually you end up with an ugly looking brown plant and it can be hard to tell what the initial disease was and what actually took out the plant (also remember that it could be frost related, or it could just be mature and shutting down). You can have combinations of NLB and anthracnose that take out a field of corn. When leaves are brown you can usually hold them up to the sunlight to see cigar shaped lesions if they were there.
Grab cobs and twist them to see if plants died early. Early death usually leaves kernels shrunken (low test weight), and the cob very loose and twistable. NLB typically invades the entire canopy. Anthracnose dieback can happen on sporadic plants as you walk down the row, or it can just affect everything depending on severity.

There are major pockets of NLB or Anthracnose or both in many of the areas I have been lately. Some fields of corn died early.

Soon the sun will come out and soy beans will come off...

While out standing in a field of mud and soybeans, it's a good time to think about how your combine is set up for the looming harvest and how you can measure it's performance. Growing soys with the top genetics and managing the crop to it's fullest with weed control and fungicides is not going to matter much if you are loosing beans out the back of the combine or have misjudged the moisture and your beans are down under 11%.

Minimizing losses before you even get to the field is the first step. At R8 (full maturity) 95% of the pods are brown and the beans will reach 13% moisture in as little as 5-10 good drying days. Even if not all the leaves have dropped from the stems the beans could be dry. Harvest delays after full maturity can result in an increase in shatter, lodging and reduced grain quality.

When you get to the field with the combine, it is important to look at losses in three different areas. In front of the combine(preharvest losses), behind the header (gathering losses) and behind the combine (machine losses). 4 beans in one square foot is equal to 1 bushel of beans lost per acre. Once you pinpoint where you are loosing beans, you can make the proper adjustments you your combine to minimize losses.

With references from Field Facts: Reducing Harvest Losses in Soybeans. Steve Butzen, Pioneer Agronomy Information Manager