188
-Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 19,2002
(Continued from Page 1)
Spangler’s company has
been making the furnaces
since last fall, after receiving
a startup grant from West
Penn Power Sustainable
Energy Fund, Inc.
Share Yield Monitor
Data With Experts
NORCROSS, Ga. The
tools of precision farming
have helped growers collect
more data than ever before
on their crops and soils.
Remote sensing, topography
and electrical conductivity
mapping, and soil test grids
supply so much data that
computerized geographic in
formation systems have
become a necessity. But in
many cases, it’s not easy to
convert these data into useful
information for management
decisions.
To manage based on col
lected data, the factors that
control yield and quality
must be found. The factors
that control crop variations
within the field are not the
same as those controlling var
iations from one year to the
next or those from one field
to another. In fact, variations
within your field likely differ
from those within your neigh
bor’s field.
Yield-limiting factors in
teract with each other. A
principle of limiting nutrients
is that change in supply of
one nutrient changes the op
timum level of the others. As
yields increase, the critical
minimum for most inputs in
creases. But at the same time,
critical maximum levels may
decrease, narrowing the opti
mum range. Finding that op
timum range is an important
objective of exploring the
data obtained from precision
farming.
Recent site-specific re
search provided an example
of this narrowing of the opti
mum range. In Quebec, vari
able rate application of
phosphorus improved corn
yields above either a check or
Let Shelled
Managed by Penn State,
the energy fund provides
grant funding and low
income financing to compa
nies pursuing renewable
energy technologies such as
biofuels and windpower, ac-
a uniformly fertilized treat
ment-even though fertilizing
uniformly produced no more
yield than the check. The
same study also found that
soil test phosphorus declined
rapidly in the absence of fer
tilizer inputs, while its spatial
variability increased.
The analysis of spatial data
requires a team. It’s a new
topic even for crop and soil
scientists. The team needs to
include a local crop adviser
or agronomist, technicians
trained in geographic data
handling and mapping, spe
cialists in soil fertility and
plant nutrition, and experts
in spatial statistics. Don’t dis
count your own resource of
practical and historical
knowledge as a grower, but
keep in mind that data
shared with experts are more
likely to improve manage
ment.
Teamwork on variable rate
nitrogen has produced re
sults. In Ontario, on-farm ex-
periments involving strips of
varying nitrogen rates have
related crop response to local
soil properties. We have
found that the soil nitrate test
usefully identifies variations
from year to year in the
supply of nitrogen from fall
applied manure. But it has
been costly to sample for the
spatial pattern of nitrate. In
addition, its spatial pattern
often doesn’t follow the pat
tern of crop response. Some
fields have shown a hint of
interaction with other fac
tors. For example, where soil
test potassium is high, crops
can use more nitrogen. In
other fields, nitrogen needs
have related better to cation
exchange capacity or soil
electrical conductivity.
Experience so far shows
that each field is unique. Per
haps when the work
progresses, common factors
will be found that enable us
to transfer relationships dis
covered in one field to an
other. But for now, unless we
continue to experiment, the
value of precision farming
will not be realized.
You have valuable data.
Share it with the experts to
reap the benefits of its value.
For more information, con
tact Dr. Tom Bruulsema,
Eastern Canada and North
east U.S. Director, PPI, 18
Maplewood Drive, Guelph,
Ontario NIG ILB, Canada,
(519) 821-5519 or e-mail:
tbruulsema@ppi-ppic.org.
Com Heat
cording to Joel Morrison of
Penn State’s College of Earth
and Mineral Sciences.
LMF received “royalty fi
nancing,” from the fund,
meaning that the company
must pay back a specified
amount on each stove it sells.
Morrison said that corn
furnaces and stoves should
especially “make sense for
the average farmer” who has
ready access to shelled corn.
Spangler said he received
manufacturing rights for the
corn furnace from Big M, an
Illinois-based company who
has been making them since
the 1980 s.
LMF is capable of manu
facturing two to two and a
half corn furnaces per day.
According to Spangler, sales
are increasing, with the com
pany supplying eight dealers
in several states, including
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Ohio.
“We’ve gotten a whole lot
of phone calls,” he said
The furnaces are going for
about $3,000 on the retail
market, Spangler said.
Features of the stove in
clude a 14-bushel storage bin,
cast-iron fire pot, corn meter
ing auger, fan control, and
thermostat relay.
According to LMF litera
ture, induced air flow into the
combustion chamber creates
99 percent burning efficiency
Chemgro WHERE QUALITY
slss
CORN, GRAIN YIELD EVALUATION
DONALD WITMER, WASHINGTON BORO, PA
RM Yield Yield % Yield/
Variety (days) Population % HzO Stalk % Test Wpt. Bu/A 15.5% of Average Moisture
Chemgro 7343 113 26,000 19.0 4.8% 56 189.5 111.8% 9.97
Pioneer 33P67 114 28,000 21.5 3.6% 58 1893 111.7% 8.80
Chemgro 7311 113 27,000 191 3.7% 58 188.9 111.4% 989
Chemgro 7227 112 28,000 17.9 2.3% 57 1791 1057% 10.01
Pioneer 33A14 113 25,600 18.2 13.3% 59 173.9 102 6% 9.55
Chemgro 7052 110 28,000 17 4 5.9% 56.5 161.8 95.5% 9.30
Chemgro 7171 111 25,750 18 6 29% 57 5 160 8 949% 8.65
Chemgro 7277RR8T 112 27,000 18 1 00% 57 1606 94 7% 887
Chemgro 73888 T 113 24,750 20 1 09% 56 5 152 0 897% 7.56.
Chemgro 75258 T 115 26,600 20 6 00% 57 139 1 82 1% 6.75
' Planted 5/2/01, Harvested 10/19/01
ChemgfO Decent moisture . 75258 T, and 73888 T on drier soil
'' ® Area Harvested per hybrid: .26 acres
jx
Seeds
Your Home
in the furnace, with the corn
leaving no creosote residue.
An energy and cost analy
sis released by Spangler
shows that shelled corn pro
vides 9,000 BTUs per pound,
compared to 13,000 BTUs
per pound of coal. Based on
$3/bushel corn and $l4O/ton
coal prices, the total cost of
producing 18,000,000 BTUs
of energy (provided by one
ton of corn) is $lOB for corn
versus $9B for coal.
However, at $2.50 per
bushel of corn, the cost of the
same amount of heat is $9O
when burning corn, accord
ing to the analysis.
“The price is comparable
to coal and is a whole lot
cleaner and safer,” Spangler
said.
The Pennsylvania-made shelled corn furnace, with
14-bushel storage bin on left.
BUY, SELL
PHONE: 7X7-626-1164 or 717-394-3047
FAX 717-733-6058
Mon., Tues., Wed., Pri. 8 AM to 5 PM: Thurs. 7 AM to 5 PM
P.O. Box 218, East Petersburg, PA 17520-0218
1 (800) 346-4769 (GROW) 71 7-569-3296
“Quality SEEDS, at reasombk prices"
& VALUE
PERFORM ALL
SEASON LONG
Of all the fuel types in
cluded in the survey, oak
wood provides the same
amount of BTUs at the least
cost $BO based on a price
of $ll5/cord.
Natural gas, fuel oil, and
L.P. gas check in at $9O,
$llO, and $l5B in producing
18,000,000 BTUs, based on
prices of $.50/cubic foot, $,85/
gallon, and $.BO/gallon, re
spectively, in the analysis
provided by Spangler.
In its outlet store, LMF
also offers corn stoves
smaller units producing
30,000 and 40,000 BTUs per
hour. The stoves are designed
more for “supplemental”
heating than the larger fur
nace, Spangler said.