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cropsey, il 61731 | It's easy to see mistakes we've made in the past. One post talked about timeliness and though I agree in general, I have a field planted in front of a big rain and the other next to it planted 10 days later while it was still damp. 1st field yielded 167 the later planted yielded 203. Some of the difference is due to drainage on the poorer field, but the planting date after the big rain turned out to be the better date.
I've only been at this for 14 years, so take this for what it cost you. I'm thinking that many of the problems we have with yield are related to the basics and getting them as good as you can. Is soil ph and fertility adequate, are you planting a high enough population for your conditions and the hybrid, is your weed control program working, is your planter doing a decent job of spacing and depth control, is your spring tillage doing a good enough job (level, even depth)? It appears the better operators in my area get the basics better and have less variability in the field.
Personally, I found I was trying to save money in the wrong spots. I used plenty of N,P,K and high priced seed and underestimated the insect pressure (RW corn really showed that). This past year I increased my insecticide rate and started using rootworm corn and some roundup corn (started seeing more 200bpa + spots on the yield map) - this addressed an insect problem I had and allowed me to kill all the grass twice in the wet areas. Next year I'm all roundup and heavy on the RW trait. Also, where I have some drainage issues that are not going to be corrected soon I'm going to up my populations to see if I can improve final stand counts. This was probably a bad idea in the past, but many hybrids are good for 39K seeds/acre in our area (ECIL) so I have some room to move up (I'm at 32.5K now - besides you can't have an ear without a stalk).
We use hog manure and it turns out that putting on 10gpa of 28% with the preplant herbicide really makes the manure program shine. I applied the same amount of 28% on our AA applied fields as well with good results. The result was going from a 163bpa average (always had one field that was terrible) to 179bpa average. So reducing insect pressure and the extra early nitrogen really improved my yields.
Probably the best thing is to keep a good attitude and keep making improvements. I like watching Ag Phd on rfd tv and online (and get a lot of farm basics). They tend to have good attitudes, are excited about farming and stress the basics. I also have the Ken Ferry CD and it's good and informative, but after watching it I get the idea that I'm always one bug away from disaster - great scouting and analysis tips though.
For us, it's eventually going to come down to drainage and what steps we can afford to take. Owning land doesn't mean you have lots of money and tile doesn't pay off one year unless you are going from 0 bushels to 200bpa. So, I prefer to try to use every tool available to me before diving into drainage. In the end though well drained land has more stable yields and more yield potential and often is the limiting factor.
Hope this helps,
Pat | |
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Does anyone want to share plans for better yields in 08
