190
-Com Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 19,2002
More Lessons From
An Interesting Year
Greg Roth
Penn State Agronomy
Associate Professor
Last year is in the history
books now but it will go down
as another interesting one for
many corn producers. Per
haps the one thing that I re
member most was the
unusually dry spring and fall
that both had dramatic im
pacts on corn management.
The crop also seemed to yield
reasonably well despite the
lack of moisture in some
areas.
The dry spring allowed for
a rapid planting season with
many folks finishing corn
planting by the first week of
May. According to USDA
figures, 68 percent of the
Pennsylvania crop had been
planted by May 13, up from
an average of 41 percent. The
dry soil conditions contrib
uted to less than ideal emer
gence in some fields and
some concerns about weed
control in others. In our own
trials, we paid careful atten
tion to our planting depth
and got reasonable stands, es
pecially where we no-tilled,.
Where corn was planted shal
low in tilled ground many
folks reported some cases of
severe delayed emergence. I
was also impressed with the
level of weed control we did
get from our premergence
herbicide programs despite
the dry season. The big lesson
plant corn 1.5 to 2.0 inches
deep, not any shallower, and
perhaps a bit deeper if the
soil is warm and dry.
The dry summer was a
mixed blessing for corn pro-
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et 4 4S
NSYLVANIA MASTER
GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Iween The Rows
Dr. Greg Roth
State Agronomy Associate Professor
ducers. In some areas disease
pressure was low and this
helped yields. But for most
fields suffered some drought
stress. Yields dropped state
wide to 94 bushels per acre
down from 127 last year.
That means we produced
about 40 million bushels less
corn this year than last.
The dry conditions in late
summer also resulted in a
drier than normal silage crop
that dried down rapidly once
it got to about 60 percent
moisture. The lesson here
measure silage moisture
don’t guess and plan accord
ingly.
On the plus side the grain
crop dried down rapidly and
the soil w as dry at harvest m
most pi ices. This resulted in
record low grain moistures,
good test weights and not
much potential for soil com
paction during harvest. Much
corn was harvested and
stored without being dried.
Harvest was also completed
in a very timely fashion. By
the 4th of November USDA
estimated that 74 percent of
the Pennsylvania crop had
been harvested compared to a
five-year average of 55 per
cent. Don’t count on many
more harvest years like this
in your career.
One concern an early fall
might generate is that corn
growers now might have
some tendency to shift to
later maturing hybrids. Then,
in a more normal year, hy
brids won’t dry down well
and test weights suffer. I sus
pect this won’t be a big prob
lem in fact I see more and
more producers relying more
on hybrids that are on the
early side of their maturity
"S' * y
zone. The reason seems to be
that many of these early hy
brids are yielding-close to or
better than the full season hy
brids, they allow an earlier
start to harvest and drying
costs are greatly reduced.
Data from our hybrid test re
ports in this issue of Corn
Talk suggest that there are
high yielding early (low mois
ture) hybrids with good test
weight available in each ma
turity zone.
The other issue that im
pressed me, and many pro
ducers, was how well the crop
yielded given the rainfall in
some areas. I attribute this to
the early planting, drought
stress tolerance of the hybrids
we are using now and the
adoption of no-till and con
servation tillage by some pro
ducers. Because of these
advances in genetics and crop
management, corn yields
have been increasing in our
state by about 1.1 bushel per
acre per year in our state
during the last 40 years.
Hopefully in 2002 yields
should improve again. It will
be an even numbered year,
which seems to help with
rainfall for some reason, and
there should be a few factors
like reduced compaction, re
duced N leaching losses and
fall tillage that should have
positive effects on yields as
well.
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WASHINGTON, D.C.
President George W. Bush, in
remarks made to Farm Jour
nal’s sixth annual forum in
Washington, D.C., empha
sized the importance of
ethanol to national security,
the environment, and the
farm economy.
After praising farmers for
representing and preserving
the values of the U.S., the
president gave a strong en
dorsement of renewable fuels
and encouraged the Senate to
pass a national energy bill.
During the pro-ethanol
speech, President Bush
stated, “I also want to im
prove our homeland security
and our economy by having a
national energy plan. I want
to thank the Farm Journal
Forum for emphasizing the
importance of ethanol and
biofuels. These fuels are
gentle on the environment.
They are fuels that can be re
newed year after year, and
fuels that can expand our
farm economy. These fuels
are made right here in Amer
ica, so they can’t be threat
ened by any foreign power.”
President Bush continually
reiterated his support for
ethanol, adding, ‘Ethanol
and biofuels are fuels of the
future for this country. Since
the beginning of my adminis-
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Corn Growers Praise
President Bush
For Pro-Ethanol
National Energy Plan
miLl NEWS
PENNSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
tration, I have strongly sup
ported ethanol and biofuels.
And the energy plan I sent to
Congress back in the spring
supports biofuels.”
“President Bush was right
on target in his remarks
today,” said Boyd Smith, a
York, Neb., corn farmer and
chairman of the National
Corn Growers Association
Ethanol Marketing Commit
tee. “The president echoed
NCGA’s long standing posi
tion that renewable fuels
like ethanol promote the
national interest, and are
good for both the environ
ment and the economy, while
enhancing our national se
curity.”
Noting that one of
NCGA’s top priorities is in
clusion of a Renewable Fuels
Standard in energy legisla
tion, Smith went on to say,
“With support like this from
the president we are hopeful
we will see legislation ex
panding the role of renewable
fuels in our national energy
policy.”
It is estimated that in 2001,
ethanol production will use
675 million bushels of corn,
producing nearly 1.8 billion
gallons of the renewable fuel.
For more information on
the National Corn Growers
Association and Ethanol, log
onto http://www.ncga.com.
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