11.13.09 - The Days Of Helter Skelter Corn Planting Are Over!
Shane Bray, AgVenture’s Yield Specialist for Northern Louisiana and Southern Arkansas, discusses choosing the right varieties for the right fields and making sure they get planted according to plan with Phillip Tomlinson of Lake Providence, LA.
One key to achieving the highest corn yields on your farm is called Field Specific Variety Selection (FSVS). Few farmers have ever heard that term. It means choosing the right varieties for the right fields and making sure they get planted according to plan. Many farmers think this match-up talk is just rhetoric or some type of sales pitch. It is, in fact, real and one of the most important decisions growers need to make that they cannot make alone. To make an informed decision, you need detailed agronomic knowledge from your seedsman on which to base your choice.
"75% of all the corn varieties never yield to their genetic potential because they are planted on the wrong piece of ground", says Wayne Dulaney, Lead Agronomist and High Yield Specialist for AgVenture Mid-South, Clarksdale, Mississippi. "In fact, we've seen growers lose 20-50 bushels per acre from variety-to-soil miss-match alone. Farmers typically receive little, if any, help from their seed supplier. This is because a typical reseller doesn't have enough information on any particular varieties' background or planning started too late to effectively match variety and soil type. He may also be selling too many competing brands for all the wrong reasons. When this happens the farmer loses, big time, every time.
Non-symbiotic relationships (incompatibility issues) can be dramatic. This occurs when a variety is not planted in the right field or if the same variety is planted on the same field more than two years consecutively. The variety begins to compete against itself, so to speak, negating any advantage the right match-up could bring. "Few farmers realize that you simply cannot plant these new modern day germplasms in just any field," comments Dulaney. "Today's varieties are akin to thoroughbred race horses. They may run fairly well on any track. However, they run their best and win races only when they run on the type of track for which were bred and trained to run on. Corn hybrids are much the same. Today's varieties are bred to win races."
Matching the right variety to the right field is absolutely paramount when going for exceptional yields. "That's why it's so important to buy seed corn from a company whose reps know and can fully understand your fields and have in-depth information about the varieties they place there," says Wayne. Matching the right variety to the right field is part of AgVenture's Maximum Profit System.
"We don't sell a farmer anything until we look at his fields first. Farmers should focus on matching Field Specific Variety Selection (FSVS) instead of wasting time searching for the so-called "best varieties", e.g. the ones that yielded the most in last year's trials. That only tells the farmer what that variety did last year, on that field, in those weather conditions, not how it will match up on the field he will be planting it on! Once one of our High Yield Specialists matches up the right varieties to the right fields, growers should not change those decisions without first consulting their seedsman." Dulaney stresses. "It will not produce the desired result." Farmers should begin planning much earlier in the season, which allows their seedsman time to make these key match-ups.
Again, AgVenture's Maximum Profit System matches the right variety to the right field. The system is designed to help farmers raise their corn yields over the next 3-5 years to levels they never imagined. "As we do that," says Dulaney, "profits skyrocket. We already have farmers in the AgVenture system consistently breaking the 300-bushel barrier who are on their way to even higher yield levels. We know the system works," assures Wayne, "we just have to get all of our growers to follow the right steps." For more information on AgVenture and its Maximum Profit System contact AgVenture at 877974-7333. They will put you in touch with your local AgVenture High Yield Specialist. You will be glad you did.