NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Roy
Flannery, of Rutgers University
knows that fanners can squeeze
more com out of an acre of ground.
He proved it in 1980 with a world'
record yield from his sandy loam
research fields in central New
Jersey.
Flannery achieved the highest
yields ever recorded for shelled
field com when his maTimnm.
yield experiments in 1960 con
cluded with corn production
figures of 312 bushels per acre, still
a world record for research plots.
For comparison, the 1980
national average for field com
production was 91 bushels per
acre, less than a third of what
Flannery achieved.
His soybeans did well, t 00—94
bushels per acre, compared with
the 1900 national average of 27.
“There is no secret formula to
#[litch crop yields/’ he said. “One
must be meticulous in planting,
meticulous in growing and
meticulous in harvesting so that
each plant can achieve its op-
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Flannery tells how to squeeze
timum yield. This means proper
balance of all controllable soil-crop
management factors."
Flannery, a specialist in soils
with the New Jersey Cooperative
Extension Service, is assisted in
his work by Howard T. Woodard, a
graduate student in the soil and
crop department at the State
University of New Jersey’s Cook
College.
Sponsored by the Potash and
Phosphate Institute, the
maximum-yield research is
conducted at the State Agricultural
Experiment Station’s facility in
Adelphia in Monmouth County.
The testing was done
simultaneously on four small plots
of land, each measuring 352 square
feet, with the results extrapolated
to a per-acre figure.
. Flannery attributes his success
in the 1980 growing season to a
number of factors including
plentiful sunlight and the use of
trickle irrigation techniques,
pioneered at n , New Jersey’s State
University," which get water
Route 222, Maxatawny, PA
Phone 215-683-7252
more corn off an acre
directly to the root system of
plants.
Also, he started out with a robust
com variety and had uniform
spacing between plants, although
the plant population on the test
plots was high. He took ap
propriate control measures for
weeds, insects and plant diseases
and put a lot of cow manure and
fertilizers on the plots.
The results of the 1981 growing
season aren’t in yet. It appears
that less sunlight and an insect
problem may have prevented the
setting of another record com
yield, but Flannery says he feels
that the average two-year yield
will still be a record.
“This year’s soybean yield may
not be affected as much as the com
because soybeans use lower levels
of sunlight more efficiently,”
Flannery explained.
He feels that the techniques he
used successfully on the sandy
loam soils of Adelphia can increase
food production elsewhere in the
United States. “They can help
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increase food and fiber crops,
optimize our natural resources and
contain food production costs,” he
stated.
Yet, some of the things he was
able to do on the test plots aren’t
practical for large-scale fanning
operations at this time. “For
example,” he said, “irrigation was
an essential part of the ex-
PEORIA, 111. Forty inches of
soil, returned to cover high-sodium
strip mine spoil in the Northern
Great Plains, allowed grass to use
soil-water and nitrogen at deeper
depths than did 10 inches, ac
cording to Stephen D. Merrill,
USDA soil scientist.
The researchers grew crested
wheatgrass on soil spread over
mine spoil at four depths: 10,20,30
and 40 inches. They evaluated
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, February 27,1982—A15
Soil depth on mine spoil
influences forage growth
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periment. Also, the «im«lln«»»w of
our plots permitted a higher level
of maintenance. Many large farms
don’t have these advantages.”
Flannery is currently back at
work in the fields of Adelpbia,
trying to make an agricultural
version of “Jersey lightning”
strike again.
water availability, nitrogen uptake
and yields in three years of ex
periments on plots near Stanton,
N.D.
Forage yields were 2 to 3 times
greater from the 40-inch plots than
from the 10-inch plots. Merrill,
stationed at the Northern Great
Plains Research Laboratory,
Mandan, N.D., worked with other
Agricultural Research Service soil
scientists James F. Power,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln,
Neb., and Samuel J. Smith,
Southern Plains Watershed and
Water Quality Laboratory,
Durant, Okla.
When the amount of soil
available to hold precipitation is
limited in this low rainfall climate,
the resulting reduction in the soil
water supply greatly affects
yields, he added.
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