A36—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 3,1981
LANCASTER Every
corn harvest brings at least
a handful of overwhelming
high corn yields that are
grovn at scattered locations
across the U.S. Ac
companying these high
yields are a number of
critics who say it's not
feasible because there is no
way to get a return-on
mvestment with high yields.
But Robert Munson,
Midwest director for the
Potash and Phosphate In
stitute, recently threw new
bght on the subject in an
article appearing in Better
Crops With Plant Food,
PPl’s official publication.
Munson carefully studied
several farm operations that
Maximum production
increases erosion potential
LANCASTER - Tight
economic restraints and
fluctuating maritets have led
fanners to continuous farm
such row crops as com and
soybeans, according to
USDA Soil Conservationist,
Paul Petnchenko.
“Erosion potential is in
creased dramatically with
continuous row crops,” he
said, “but there are several
simple inexpensive ways to
reduce that potential.”
The use of crop residue
management, minimum
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Big corn yields pay if management is right
continuously produce at or
near the elusive 300-bushel
mark and found that not only
is producing at that level
economically feasible, but it
is very economically
feasible.
For instance, when Roy
Lynn, Jr. of Schoolcraft,
Michigan set a new world
yield record of 352.6 bushels
per acre with DeKalb XL-54
m 1977, the seed company
sponsored him at farmer
meetings around the country'
where he insisted his special
10-acre plot was his most
profitable piece of corn
ground.
Munson’s figures bear that
out Lynn’s high corn yield
compares to the Michigan
tillage and a cover crop are a
few basic means of reducing
erosion.
Crop residue management
includes leaving com stalks
on the soil after harvesting.
These stalks protect soil by
reducing the force of rainfall
striking the particles of soil
and causing soil movement
leading ultimately to soil
erosion.
Likewise, sowing a winter
rye cover crop forms a
protective cover which also
reduces soil movement.
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1977 average of 85 bushels
per acre. His production
costs ran at $347.91 per acre
while the average grower m
the state racked up $255 per
acre in production costs
Breakeven prices, then, are
99 cents per bushel and $2.65
per bushel respectively.
The record holder netted
$357 29 per acre on his 10
acres of special ground if
you figure he sold his corn at
$2 per bushel, while the
average Michigan producer
would lose $55 on each acre
in 1977
Lynn’s story turns out to
be typical of that told by
other high-yield corn
growers. Stanley Wilson of
Saybrook, Illinois, took
Another means of
reducing erosion potential is
through the use of chisel
plowing or minimum tillage.
Limiting the amount of soil
plowed is advantageous in
that less soil is exposed to
rainfall.
By coupling these simple
soil management techniques
with intensive cropping
systems, farmers can
reduce soil erosion potential
while realizing maximum
crop yield, concluded
Petrichenko.
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DeKalb Yieldmasters Club
dryland honors in 1978 with a
280 bushel corn yield.
The average Illinois com
grower had production costs
of $254 per acre in 1978.
Wilson spent $21.84 more for
fertilizer, $2.38 more for a
higher plant population and
another $30.42 for extra
harvesting and drying costs.
When added to the $254
figure, Wilson had a per acre
cost of $308.64.
Even if he sold his crop as
low as $2 per bushel, he’d
gross $560 per acre, leaving
net profits of $251.36 per
acre. His Illinois peers
averaged a net loss of $32 per
acre that year.
Houston County Minnesota
farmer Hildus Wold hit 247.6
bushels per acre in 1977
while the average farmer in
his state produced 100
bushels per acre. At $2 corn.
Wold made $.68 per bushel,
leaving him with a net profit
of $l6B 68 per acre while the
average Minnesota farmer
lost $.54 per bushel, or $54
per acre.
Munson points out that an
inherent problem is that
most of the high yields are
grown on limited acreage or
at least checked on limited
acreage. The limitation
seems to be the intensive
management practices, not
the intensive inputs.
For example, Lynn ht
terally baby-sat his
traveling irrigation unit so
the corn wouldn’t lack at all
for water.
“Sometimes, I’d get up at
3 a.m. to turn the machine
around at the end of the
field,” he says.
It’s practices such as that
which make growing out
standing yields unfeasible on
large acreages. But, Munson
points out that there remains
a more basic problem.
“The rate of nitrogen in
corn production still is the
limiting factor in many
fields over most of the
country,” he says.
Munson estimated the
needed nutrient content for a
400-bushel corn crop based
on what it took to produce
235,255 and 257 bushel crops.
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He pegs nitrogen needs at
393 pounds, per acre for a 400
bushel crop, naturally with
good environmental factors.
These examples are not to
say that going all-out is for
everyone. But, for those
farmers who have ex
perimented enough to
consistently produce at high
levels, the economic in
centive exists.
The farmer’s goal, once he
is convinced special high
yield plots return more
money per acre, is to expand
the mcreased management
inputs to the rest of the farm.
Sr