Page 2—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 11,1995
For Snook, Standability’s
(Conllnuad from Pago 1)
yield of 195.8 bushels per acre,
all with Pioneer 3293.
This is not the first top award
he has captured in the nearly 20
years he has entered the contest.
However, Snook’s reasons for
entering don’t center on the
awards.
“We’ve been doing this
about every year. I don’t like to
jump in one year and miss
another year. Even the year
1991, which was a drought
year, there’s a lot of people who
pulled their entries. I don’t like
to do that,” Snook said. “They
send us a report back and in our
county, the extension agent
requires that you do a budget
plan. We have to include all
investments ... the amount of
equipment we have, the number
of acres we farm .. . It’s not
only on this com, it’s on our
whole operation.”
The reports Snook and other
farmers in the area receive back
include figures for the average
cost per acre on everything. To
Snook, this information is
worth all the effort.
Snook gained some of his
com growing expertise when
he worked for Doeblers from
1967-1977.
“We used to raise seed com
here,” he said. “I worked there
part time. What would happen
is that I’d work there in the fall
and the spring and I’d be off in
the summer and in the winter
I’d be off a while.”
When Doeblers downsized
production in the East, Snook
and his wife, Nancy, decided to
look into other enterprises.
They started working with
Pioneer Hybrids and ventured
into the hog business. They also
dabbled in the hay business in
the early 1980 s.
“We built our hog house in
1977. We started with sows and
raising feeder pigs. In about
1980 we switched over to fin
ishing toohe said. “A couple
of years ago because of the lack
of extra help, we got rid of the
sows and now all we do is
finish.”
As an independent producer,
the Snooks finish between
400-500 hogs per year on
Snook’s OK Hog Farm. They
also raise raise about 700 acres
of com and soybeans, mostly
on rented ground.
“There’s a lot of people who
have farms they don’t want to
farm in the area,” said Snook.
“Every year it seems you get
offered more land. We have
written agreements with the
owners usually for three to five
years.”
Snook is responsible for all
the improvements to the land.
The com is grown for both
high moisture com and dry
shell com.
He notes that his harvest is
not as fast as other farmers
because he works at it himself,
especially when he’s drying the
com. When he’s harvesting the
com for high moisture com,
truckers are hired and the com
is taken off at a quicker pace.
Often, because of the weath
er, Snook is not able to get all
the com out of the fields in the
fall. This past year was one of
those years where having com
standing was to his advantage.
“We had com out there after
the first of December. About
the middle of December the
price of com went up. From the
first part of December to the
last we gained $.25. We sold
com over the holidays which
we were harvesting and bring
ing in to the bin, drying it and
emptying it right out. I’ve seen
this happen year after year, so
one of the big factors that I’m a
big stickler on is com standabil
ity. Thai’s the whole key to our
outfit as far as I am concerned.
That’s why we went to Pioneer
because we got better dry down
and better standability. I select
hybrids on how well they
stand.”
Snook also watches hybrids
closely for disease.
“We’re down along the river
where we get a lot of fog.
Sometimes we get a lot of fun
gus diseases and some com
really gets it bad,” said Snook.
‘This past year there weren’t a
lot of problems with anything.
I’m really fussy.”
Before planting a whole field
in a new hybrid, Snook will
usually develop a test plot.
“We put a test plot out every
year. I’m looking at not just
basic yield, I want to know
about standability and dry
down,” he said.
If there is another key to
making Snook a successful
com grower, it is in planting the
com.
“A lot of guys say you can’t
grow continuous com. We’re
only growing about 125 acres
of soybeans. We do that to
break up the rotation and we
feed them to the pigs.
“The planting part is the
most important part,” said
Snook. “You’ve got to check
the seed depth yourself. If you
don’t plant right, you don’t
have a harvest.”
Snook also believes in taking
it slow. He doesn’t plant over
about four miles per hour to
ensure more accurate seed
placement.
Although he does plant some
of his com with the no-till
method, he relies on the chisel
plow and the standard mold
board plow.
“We no-till about 200 acres.
We have better results on an
average with conventional.
This past year we averaged 20
more bushels per acre on con
ventional than on no-till,” he
said. “When we get a dry spell,
it really hurts our no-till.”
No-till also means more her
bicide and more potential for
disease.
“What I’ve done is take
fields where I’ve no-tilled a
section and then chisel plowed
a strip. It looks like strip farm
ing, but we actually put it all in
com. I see some real results
where we’ve no-tilled and
chisel plowed and then after
four to five years go in there and
moldboard again. It’s really a
stand out. So, the bottom line is,
we’re keeping our plows!”
What this ultimately mean's
to the Snooks is that they con
centrate on rotating tillage
methods more then rotating
crops.
His main fertilizer is the pig
manure, but he’s careful not to
apply too much.
“We didn’t find we were get
ting any more results after 15
tons per acre. We did a study
with the Soil Conservation Ser
vice on applying manure at dif
ferent rates. We found out we
were getting our best yields at
that level. We try to redistribute
the manure over more acres. It
costs us a little more money to
do it, but it pays in the long
run,” he said.
His pig manure runs at about
10-11-10 on an analysis. This
past year he added a 10-34-0
starter at eight gallons per acre
when he planted his com.
Snook is also a big believer
in the Pennsylvania Crop Man
agement Association. In fact,
he helped start the West Branch
Crop Management
Association.
During the growing season,
technicians visit the farm to
scout for weeds and pests. They
also check moisture content,
percent lodging and other fac
tors in the crop and take soil
samples to give the farmers fer
tilizer recommendations.
For Snook, the technicians
arc like having a hired hand.
With their help, he can concen
trate on planting or harvesting
while they scout for pests and
check the field conditions.
“Basically a lot of farmers
want their high moisture com
from 25-28 percent moisture,”
explained Snook. “You can
look at the reports and know
which fields to harvest first. We
cover about seven miles. I don’t
like to go to a field and find that
it’s not ready.”
Marathon Oil Announces
ST. LOUIS, Mo. —Mar
athon Oil Company, Findlay,
Ohio announced it would imme
diately begin producing ethyl
tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) at
the company’s Robinson, 111.
refinery. This will be the first
full-scale production of ETBE.
an oxygenate additive made
from ethanol, to occur in the
United States.
“This is a significant first step
in helping to diversify the role of
ethanol in America’s gasoline
pool. The continued use of
ethanol blends, the development
of E-85 vehicles, and now
ETBE, all help to fulfill the Clin
ton Administration’s objectives
to lessen our dependence on fos
sil fuels and reduce global
warming,” said Rod Gangwish,
president of the National Com
Growers Association (NCGA)
and a farmer from Shelton. Neb.
Marathon had been producing
methanol based, MTBE at the
Robinson refinery but has decid
ed to make the switch to ETBE
for economic reasons. Produc-
(O®!! tmm. mm
Crop management records are an Important tool to
Ed Snook who captured first place in the three year
average, regular harvest size, shelled grain class in
the 1994 Pennsylvania Corn Club competition.
herbicide program and go back
to what I used to use,” said
Snook. “For the past year or
two I tried to do it all pre
emerge, now I’m going to go
back to post-emerge. We’re
having a problem with a couple
of weeds where we’ll get better
results with post emergence.”
What Snook would like to
see someday is a com efficien
cy contest.
“I’d like to see who can raise
the most com with the least
amount of cost,” he said. “In a
heavy dairy state this could be
done really easy.”
Use of the technicians has
also allowed Snook to virtually
eliminate insecticide use.
“I haven’t used any insecti
cide for five or six years. That’s
why we went to some soybeans.
When a field gets a high
threshold, 1 push it into soy
beans for a year,” he explained.
“That was a crop management
principle. It you take the time to
do your scouting, you’ll know
what you Jiave out there.”
Knowing what’s in the field
also helps Snook determine
which herbicides he will use.
“I’m going to change my
ETBE Production
tion levels will range from 1,500
to 1,600 barrels per day or
approximately 63,000 to 65,000
gallons of ETBE per day.
Ethanol will comprise roughly
40 percent of the total ETBE gal
lon, with the remaining 60 per
cent being isobutylene, a butane
based refinery by-product.
Marathon cites the recent rul
ing by the Treasury Department
to allow the application of the
Federal Excise Tax Exemption
for ethanol blends to ETBE, as
the reason for the switch.
Daniel Moenter, manager of
governmental affairs for Mar
athon, said, “This change in
refinery operation will benefit
both the environment and agri-
cultural interests in Illinois.”
While not the first to produce
ETBE, Marathon Oil will be the
only fully dedicated ETBE
etherification unit in operation.
Arco Chemical is also produc
ing ETBE. but has yet to “scale
up” to major production levels.
Most of their production has
been on a test market basis.
“We are very optimistic but
the extent of ETBE use has yet to
be determined, variables such as
the price of imported methanol,
production and logistical consid
erations for ethanol and the final
ruling of the U.S. Court of
Appeals on the Renewable Oxy
genate Requirement, will all play
a role in shaping the future of
ETBE,” Gangwish said.
INI
IC.