A44-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 17,1990
Lancaster County Farmers Have Highest State Corn Yields
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster
Co.) Compared to 22 years
ago, it costs more than twice to run
a farm. But Lancaster fanners
should be happy because they have
the highest com yields in the state.
“Fanners in the northwest part
of the state are griping that they
don’t have the soils you have,”
said Dr. Greg Roth, Penn State
com specialist, to about 250 far
mers at the 29th annual Lancaster
County Crops and Soils Day at the
Farm and Home Center on
Tuesday.
“Despite a wet spring and hot
August, Lancaster still came out as
the lop yielding area in the whole
slate,” Roth said, speaking about
trends in the Pennsylvania Five-
Acre Com Club Program.
Roth called 1989 a “strange
year” where the yields varied “a
lot, depending on where you were,
the soil, and the nutrient conditions
at the lime.” Costs in die slate var
ied from location on a per-acre
basis on land, anywhere from
$6 to $llO, herbicide from $6 to
$6l, and fertilizer from $l5 to
$lOl.
Operating a farm
The study looked at 1968 costs
in same-year dollars and compared
them with the costs of operating a
farm in 1989. Overall, to produce 1
acre of com in 1989, costs were at
least 2.5 times greater than 22
years ago. Now, it costs about
$225 to produce 1 acre of com at
an average yield, in Lancaster
County, of 140.2 bushels per acre.
Seed costs rose the most, about
four times what they were in 1968.
Land costs rose about three times.
“There has been no upward
trend in production to compensate
an increase in cost,” said Roth.
“There is a little uncertainty in
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There has been no
upward trend in corn pro
duction to compensate for
increased costs of farming,
Indicated Dr. Greg Roth,
Penn state corn specialist,
at the Lancaster County
Crops and Soils Day.
what lies ahead for com growers.
There is not a lot of predictability
about what price is going to be.”
10 to 15 studies
Roth discussed the work done
by the extension in soil nitrogen
testing. The extension performed
10 to 15 studies to find a pattern of
nitrogen use and its relation to com
production.
“We noticed the same tendency
in other states when nitrogen
excedds the crop requirements, it
will accumulate in the soil,” he
said.
As much as 200 pounds of nitro
gen per acre can remain in the soil
during the fall, causing potential
PROGRESS
TIME!
The program includes:
ter than the weed, finding
out how the weed is grow*
ing, and what the best time
of year is to get at the weed
chemically to get disposal,”
said Lynn Hoffman from
Penn State’s agronomy
research department at the
Crops and Soils Day.
spring groundwater pollution
problems if fanners don’t learn
how to test and manage their soil
nitrogen content.
Up to 40 percent of the nitrogen
laid down in the fall can be gone by
the spring, Roth said. ‘ ‘ln one case,
we found 40 percent of 300-400
pounds of nitrogen an acre leached
into the groundwater. We need to
find these kinds of fields that are
way out of line.”
100 pounds per acre
There should be no more than
100 pounds per acre of nitrogen in
sentlng the Pennsylvania
Dept, of Ag Region IV,
speaks to farmers about
Important new pesticide
laws in the state.
the soil after the com harvest and
through the winter months. Far
mers must take steps to minimize
the amount of nitrogen left over in
the fields that could contaminate
groundwater, Roth said.
“There are some uncertainties
in Pennsylvania, such as leftover
legumes, manure, and alfalfa,” he
said: “But the nitrogen test helps
reduce the amount of
uncertainty.”
Nitrogen sampling, either
through a Penn State lab test or a
Quicktest kit (available for $2BO
retail) can be used by the farmer to
find out the amount of nitrogen in
the soil.
“Pennsylvania is one of the
leading states to reduce its con
sumption of nitrogen fertilizer, ”
said Roth. “Farmers pay attention
to manure use and it shows up in
our figures.”
One aspect to nitrogen testing
newly discovered, according to
Roth, is that the test should be
taken not necessarily at a certain
date, but one week before sided
ressing, when the com crop reach
es 12 inches tall.
A little more than half the far
mers in the survey had normal nit
rogen parts per million (ppm) read
ings of 10-25. Only 23 percent had
less than 10 ppm of nitrogen and
only 22 percent greater than 25
ppm.
“We’re satisfied with the peo
ple in the field who ran the test
before and came pretty close to the
field recommendation levels,”
Roth said. However, the test must
exhibit uniformity, and farmers
should ensure that samples taken
are not from areas of the field
where manure spreading is higher
than any other.
Sorrft Lancaster County fanners
benefit from cultivation to stop
weed growth. But “those who
were cultivating weeds without
some form of chemical weed con
trol notice that cultivation is only
one part of weed control,” said
Lynn Hoffman, from Penn State's
agronomy research department.
Hoffman explained to the far
mers that weed control “is a very,
very young science. It's not unrea
sonable to assume we will make
some mistakes, especially for a
science that is so young.”
Hoffman said farmers should try
for a “marriage” of chemical and
mechanical methods of weed con
trol for their crops. Short-term
crop rotation will help prevent the
spread of weeds. Some of the tech
nology available to dislodge
weeds, by using discs or hoes, can
be of help to .some farmers.
Hoffman emphasized the
importance of applying a light
amount of chemical early to hold
the crop to no weed pressure; Par
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