AgriGold

Corn Crop Is Looking Pretty Good So Far In Illinois

July 16, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — This year’s growing season started quick, followed by some quirks, and is know holding it’s own into the second half. Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois Extension crop production specialist, discussed his take on what has transpired with this year’s corn crop during the recent AgriGold Specialty Products Conference. “We had one of the best starts that we ever thought we would have,” he said. Prognosticators in March were forecasting another wet and cold spring, similar to 2009. However, 2010 became one of the best planting seasons on record for large portions of the Midwest. “We got three weeks of warm weather in April without rainfall, and we were off to the races,” Nafziger recalled. “We planted about two-thirds of our corn crop in two weeks. We were 87 percent planted by the first of May. That’s the kind of thing we just dream about. “Emergence was pretty good. Growing degree accumulations in April were about average. Unfortunately, they were higher than average the first part of the month and lower than average in the second half the month. We ended up only accumulating about 200 to 250 in April, depending on when you had planted. That’s nice, but we would have like it to stay warm once it got warm.” Although planting was early, Nafziger said that does not equal high yield. “The other two years of the past 10 with early planting of 80 percent done by the first of May were in 2004 and in 2005. In 2004 we yielded 180 and in 2005 it was 143,” he said. “We had the latest planting in past 50 years was in 2009, and we had 174 bushel yield, which was one of our best yields we’ve had.” Growers still are seeing the impact of last year’s late harvest. “Standability was pretty good (during the 2009 harvest), but we generally had problems with dropping grain on the ground,” said Nafziger, resulting in an abundance of volunteer corn this year. “We’re always shocked at how much corn we actually lost,” he said, pointing to a photo of a field with a bumper crop of volunteer corn. “We always lose some, but when we get examples like this, and you start calculating that every two seeds per square foot out there was a bushel per acre, and there were 40 or 50 seeds per square foot out there that came up, you start to figure that you lost 15 to 20 bushels per acre during harvest.” A reason for the excessive volunteer corn is because harvest was done in early November when it was cool “and the seed just sat there in the refrigerator, then in the freezer, and this spring it call came up,” Nafziger said. He added it is best when volunteer corn comes up in the fall so growers don’t have to deal with it in the spring. “Last year, none of it came up in the fall, mostly because anytime there was a temperature for it to germinate it was still standing on the stalk,” he said. “One of the real problems with this these days is a lot of it is herbicide resistant, and honestly we don’t have any idea if that’s a Roundup Ready Liberty Link hybrid that was planted last year, we can’t take it out of the crop. Our only suggestion is you have to go out, tear that up and start again if it has to be corn. “We’re given some thought on how you could manage this, but in today’s environment, today’s hybrids that we have, it’s almost impossible. “Our best hope for volunteer corn is it germinates in the fall, comes up and gets killed and we don’t have to worry about it in the spring. It’s not going to be this bad very often — it’s just an issue that out there this year.” The condition of the corn started off on a positive note this year, with 80 percent of the crop in Illinois rated good or excellent in early May. It slowed trended downward due to excessive rainfall in parts of the state. “If we had not had the 12 inches of rain in May and the eight to 10 since then in some parts of the state, I think the conditions would still be 80 percent and it might be higher than that,” Nafziger said. “Stands are generally very good this year, thanks to the good seed, good planting conditions, and good planters.” The crop specialist said he has received questions about attempting to revive “swamp corn” from excessive rainfall, particularly in the low parts of the fields. “Yes, if it’s made good growth and if water is off the field, we can add some nitrogen,” he said. “I suggested that we not use more than 90 to 100 pounds of nitrogen and even that is probably more than we need in some fields. “Maybe, if we never go nitrogen on but the crop is of good height, but very light green, 50 to 90 pounds of nitrogen as urea plus Agrotain or another urease inhibitor because if we drop nitrogen on a top of a moist soil and it dries out a little bit, that stuff is going to take wing real fast. Probably not if the crop is stunted and still standing in water. “Realistically, these low spots where the farmers cultivated and said the corn in the rest of the field is as high as my head and this stuff is about knee-high, looks yellow and sick, and has every nutrient deficiency known. They ask if it could be brought back. Basically, I think the answer is no.” One question growers have is if there is a need to consider at this point in the season an application of a foliar fungicide. “There is little foliar disease right now. We need to watch closely for gray leaf spot. Warm, wet weather and susceptible hybrids are more likely to mean that fungicides will pay,” Nafziger said at the June 24 event. Economics should be considered when weighing the need for a fungicide application. “We need eight to 10 bushels to pay for aerial application. That’s a pretty high bar. Standing there saying we’ll get eight to ten bushels, you can’t do with certainty,” Nafziger said. In looking at where the corn crop is at this point, “most parts of most fields are good to very good. We still have a lot of corn that just looks outstanding,” he said. “It has good stand and good color for most fields. Even though we talk about nitrogen loss, many times the nitrogen moves below the root zones and when the roots grow some more they will take it up.” However, Nafziger added, he isn’t going to make any predictions of the end result, “but it’s been pretty good so far."

Categories: Corn Hybrid