Growing 300-bushel corn on a consistent basis may seem like a tall order, especially coming on the heels of a drought that saw yields in 2012 fall far below the norm.
Farmers in the Southeast and in other parts of the country have harvested more than 300 bushels per acre on small “contest” fields entered in the National Corn Growers Association’s National Corn Yield Contest.
But it’s rare that growers have picked more than 300 bushels on their whole farm or even some of the more productive parts of their farming operation. That doesn’t mean they can’t, says Bob Nielson, the Extension corn specialist at Purdue University.
Well, yeah, that might be true for the heart of the Corn Belt where big-name university agronomists have access to decades of research. But the truth is that farmers in the South have shown they could rack up some impressive yields in places like the Virginia Tidewater, Valdosta, Ga., and Purdy, Mo., which are not known for having deep, black Midwest soils.
Nielson was addressing his comments to a group of crop consultants in Iowa, which consistently leads the nation in corn acreage and corn production. But he could have been talking to producers anywhere.
“The physiological yield components necessary to produce a 300-plus-bushel crop are not terribly out of reach today,” he noted. “Potential ear size is easily 1,000 kernels with today’s hybrids, which would be equal to an ear with 18 kernel rows and 56 kernels per row.”
If that ear size could be maintained at a harvest population of 30,000 plants per acre, and if kernel weight could be maintained at about 85,000 kernels per 56-pound bushel, those components would equal a yield of 356 bushels per acre.
Speaking at the annual Integrated Crops Management Conference on the campus of Iowa State University, Nielsen said steadily rising yields are a relatively recent phenomenon for U.S. corn producers.
For 70 years, beginning in 1886, national corn grain yields in the U.S. were essentially flat and averaged only 26 bushels per acre during that entire time. That occurred even though farmers of the day were also plant breeders, selecting the best ears from one crop for planting in the next.
After the Dust Bowl years in the 1930s, growers began to plant hybrid seed corn that launched a slow but steady rise in production. With the advent of mechanization, herbicides, inorganic fertilizers, farmers began to see even greater increases that averaged about 2 bushels per acre from 1955 to the present.
World food experts have been predicting the 300-bushel-per-acre corn yields will be needed as early as 2030 and maybe even sooner when you consider the increasing use of corn for ethanol-based fuels. If the trend remains where it is, that 1.9 or 2 bushels per acre won’t be good enough.
“To reach that lofty goal of 300 bushels per acre by 2030, another quantum leap shift in the rate of annual yield gain would have to occur beginning next year that would take us to an annual increase of about 7.5 bushels per acre per year for the next 19 years,” says Nielsen.
“Such a quantum leap shift in yield improvement would be unprecedented in the history of corn production. Contrary to the hype and hoopla over transgenic corn traits by the farm media and seed corn industry, there is little evidence such a leap has begun.”
If some farmers are already producing 300 bushels per acre and more today, what can other growers do to push their yields into that range?
“The answer to that question is simple,” says Nielsen. “Once that seed is planted, that crop is subjected to a season-long array of yield-influencing factors, most of which are stresses that reduce yield potential.
“So the secret to improving yields on your farm is simply to sharpen your focus on identifying the yield-influencing factors specific to the fields you farm. Once you have successfully done that, then you are better equipped to identify the appropriate agronomic management strategies to alleviate those factors holding back your yield and, perhaps, enhance those factors that promote high yields.”
Nielsen says the trouble with the way many farmers go about trying to improve yields is that they look for “silver bullets” or the “one-size-fits-all” answer to their problems. Instead, farmers need to pay attention to a range of what he calls “yield-influencing factors:”
“The key challenge is to identify hybrids that not only have good yield potential, but that also tolerate a wide range of growing conditions. The best way to accomplish this is to evaluate hybrid performance across a lot of locations.”
“It should be obvious at this point that achieving higher, more consistent yields does not require ‘rocket science,’” says Nielsen. “Rather, we’re talking about a lot of common sense, agronomic principles that work together to minimize the usual crop stresses that occur every year and allow the crop to better tolerate uncontrollable weather stresses.”
While it’s true that Nielson is more familiar with growing corn in Indiana and the eastern Corn Belt states, agronomists say many of the principles he cited could play a role in increased yields in the Southeast.
Certainly, improved drainage, better hybrid selection and more precise nitrogen and disease management could benefit growers everywhere. That and more consistent rainfall patterns would help, too.