D26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 5,1983
5-acre Corn dub uses computer to
UNIVERSITY PARK -
Growers enrolled in the Five-Acre
Com Club sponsored by Penn State
Cooperative Extension Service are
learning how to increase their
yields through a computer
program which makes the best
possible use of all production
components.
In addition to having yields
checked at the end of the growing
season, members fill out a detailed
report including information on
fertilization rates, plant
population, how the plot was
plowed or tilled, and the type of
weed control used. This in
formation is entered into a com
puter, and, along with data on soil
types and other constants, can be
used to analyze what the grower
needs to do to increase production.
“It’s the only source of this type
of information in the world,” said
(Continued from Page D 25)
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Dr. Joseph McGahen, Penn State
Extension agronomist, who wrote
the computer program and helped
organize the present structure of
the Five-Acre Com Club. Other
states have requested copies of the
program, but it specifically in
corporates Pennsylvania
characteristics and would have to
be rewritten for use elsewhere.
McGahen pointed out that a
farmer who joins the com club
chooses one field of at least & acres.
Most members select their most
fertile field because at the end of
the season, their yields are com
pared to the yields of every other
com member in the state. The top
growers for the year receive
trophies at the Farm Show in
Harrisburg.
Paul Lawrence of New Castle,
last year was named club cham
pion in the shelled grain harvested
USDA
agricultural science and education
system more efficient.
The “talked about”
Profit Hybrids in Cecil
County, Maryland
Princeville, 111. 61559
Rising Sun, MD
division with a yield of 224.4
bushels per acre. His crop had a
plant population 0f26,449 per acre.
In the ear com harvested class,
Wilmer and Mark Kraybill of R 3,
Elverson, were declared cham
pions with a yield of 228.7 bushels
per acre. Plant population for this
winning crop was 29,796 per acre.
McGahen keeps an aimual chart
listing the plant populations for the
club in order from the lowest
population to the highest. Also
listed are the number of growers
who planted each population, the
yield in bushels per acre produced
by each population, and the
amount of nitrogen applied in each
case.
Logic is that if you increase the
plant population per acre, you
should increase production, the
Penn State agronomist noted. But
this-did not hold true for the two
largest populations in 1981. Yields
were lower than the yield of the
third largest population.
“Here’s our answer,” McGahen
said, looking at the computer
printout. “A quantity of
nitrogen was applied for each
larger population except the two
largest. These growers planted
com but didn’t apply more
nitrogen.”
The computer readout makes the
answer very simple. Each time the
plant population is increased, you
must increase the amount of
nitrogen if you want a higher yield.
The Extension agronomist
emphasized that the completeness
of the computer program enables
it to provide answers to almost any
improve yields
question about methods of corn
production and how it relates to
yield. For each grower in the club
over the last 15 years, there are
about 70 separate items of data
stored in the computer.
Summaries of this information
are used by county Extension
agents who distribute them to
growers at production clinics.
Farmers not in the program query
top growers, ask them what results
they received and what practices
they used to get them. “It’s
education over the fence.”
McGahen said. “It has encouraged
growers to adopt those practices
that the higher-yield producing
farmers are using.”
A direct benefit for all Five-Acre
Corn Club participants is that they
can request a cost analysis for
their crop. Tabulated by the
computer from information the
grower provides, the analysis
gives the individual grower a
comparison between his or her cost
of production and the final income
brought in by the crop. Efficiency
of conr production is more im
portant than high yields.
“The cost analysis also can
benefit people who have never
grown com but would like to. By
using computer data, they can
formulate a budget to determine
whether com would be profitable
for them. They also can take the
budget to the bank when
requesting a loan to begin com
production,” the specialist em
phasized.
On a large scale, the data
produced through this Extension
program show that a need exists
for education among some of the
state’s com producers. It also
shows a need for research based on
the results and practices of the
higher yield producers so those
growers can continue to improve
their yields, McGahen added.
Certainly yields will no improve
indefinitely; he admitted that it’s
impossible to go beyond a certain
level of production. But McGahen
feels that Pennsylvania com
'production has not yet reached its
peak despite a leveling off in
recent years.
Growers join the Five-Acre Com
Club both to learn and to compete.
Some have stayed with the
program almost every year, while
others leave after 1 or 2 years.
Extension agents set the number of
participants for their counties
because they must personally
check the yield of each member’s
plot. Each yield check takes about
half a day. Almost 400-plus
growers from 50 counties compete
each year.
“There is no fee to join the club,
although participants must buy a
soil test kit from the University.
Commercial seed companies
donate money to the club to pay for
the trophies and ribbons awarded
are handled by the Pennsylvania
Master Corn Growers’
Association,” the agronomist
emphasized.
The highest yield recorded in
Pennsylvania was 247.9 bushels
per acre. This crop was produced
in 1961 by Jeff Pontius of R 1
Northumberland. However, in
New Jersey, a Rutgers University
researcher produced over 300
bushels per acre.