Help------Corn Farmers

[PD-Riverman]

I planted app 4 acre's of corn this year that I gathered. This is the first time corn has been planted in maybe 10 years on my farm, Usually tobacco and soybeans. Its my first year of planting corn. I only gathered app 30 bushels per acre,(some of the local farmers got 125 bush. per acre, a few got more) well I got 200 bags of corn for the deer hunters at app 65lb per bag on the cob. Barely got my money back for just supplies, no labor or fuel. OK, I put what was recomended as far as lime, fertilizer and nitrogen. This was roundup corn. OK questions, would it help if I turn in the old stalks and plant a cover crop? If So, What to plant? I am going to get a soil test, when is the best time to do the test? Would it hurt to replant corn next year in the same spot? I have bought a 1 row picker and other equipment for corn this year and I just got to try it again next year before I decide to sell the equipment, but I would like to Do now whatever it takes(other than rain) to get the best crop next year. Again I am new at this, so I would appreciate some of your help!!

Edited to add:::Located on the East Coast Of S.C.

[fantasymaker]

where ya at?

[Alice In TX/MO]

You can do a soil test any time, but get the instructions for gathering the soil correctly. It's not just go out and dig up a cup of dirt.

[BillHoo]

Perhaps the local deer, raccoons, rats, possums, groundhogs, squirrels, feral hogs and corn poachers had a field day on your crops?

[james dilley]

After you get Your soil est. Done, Check And see what the cost of Clover seed would be. Also you might Want to Check on Bio-Solids. In some areas they pay you to use it. And they Apply it. Can you get A decent source for Nitrogen? Phospurous? Potash?? Those are the Big 3 But you might need Micro Nutreints too. You can Plant A Open Pollinated seed corn too.

[PD-Riverman]

Originally Posted by BillHoo

Perhaps the local deer, raccoons, rats, possums, groundhogs, squirrels, feral hogs and corn poachers had a field day on your crops?

This was 2---2 acre fields, The back 2 acre's did get a little damage from squirels and raccoons, but not alot, the front field showed no damage, but I ""WISH"" the deer were so bad that they had of eat 1/2 of it. I would have a good place to deer hunt, but to my knowledge not one deer visited, no sign anyway(tracks etc).

[plowhand]

I don't know exactly where you're at,but most places from Georgetown to Wilmington had spotty crops at the best. Some communities had good corn, some had corn a foot high. Here some corn made stalks and no corn. I had some that was close to 12 foot with fine ears, on the same farm. It was in a different field. It was old OP corn. I find that it'll sort a sit and wait a while on the rain. If you don't have rain when you need it your corn won't pollinate right, and you won't make much corn. It doesn't matter if everyhing is perfect. If you planted RR corn you didn't cultivate it. Year like this culivating shallow will help hold in the moisture. Don't believe it..... disc a piece if land and work it every time it rains, just enough to break the crust. It will retain a certain a mount of moisture. Try to work up a piece of ground that hasn't been touched or worked and left for a few months, it gets so hard you can't work it with much less than a 125-150 hp tractor. I've seen some years that corn I kept plowing with a mule made corn, and the corn I worked with the tractor didn't make with the exception of a few wet spots in the fields. Remember too, I've had neighbors swear to 50 bu beans and 300 bushel corn. If you make 300 bu an acre on a 50 acre field in this part of the country........you might make it on an acre but you ain't gonna do it across the board.

[DaleK]

OK you planted RR corn.. so what was the weed control like? Was it nice and clean, or did something go wrong and the corn was fighting weeds the whole way along? What variety did you use? Did you get it in on time?

[FarmboyBill]

U live in NE Okla, and I have never made the corn I made in NE Kans. Reason? Nobody sells anhiderous ammonia here. There is no farming done here. just hay and pasture, and for many, ROCKY fields. They mostly use granular fertilizer, which I do also, but ive never made the corn here that ive made back home. Of Course, the ground is different here, the moisture content is different here. I planted $100/bu RR corn also, and it didnt do a bit better than OP corn, AND I DID CULTIVATE. I ran a rotary hoe through the corn right after planting. I then after the corn showed, I howed it again. Then when it was around 10in tall, I ran a spring tooth harrow that I had adjusted so as to allow it to pass through 2 rows of taller corn. Then, I plowed it once or twice. Most of us realize that OP corn cannot make the bu that Hybreds can. I buy my op corn from a man who has print in his brocure says ( OP corn will make the same bu as hybred if comparatable amounts of fertilizer is used). thats BS. OP corn just dont do the same as hybreds do. They cant be planted in as close a rows and do as good as in 36in rows. They cant be planted as close together as hybreds can/

[travlnusa]

If the rain missed you a key time, the ears may not have silked out at the right time.

However my guess is that you planted to shallow or deep.

[PD-Riverman]

I am sure I will not spell it right, but the name of the corn was Viragro or close.

Dalek-- The corn was almost weed free except for the ends of the rows had some weeds. I planted 2 acre's about end of the first week in March, then the other 2 acre the last week in March, then we had the Big frost, all of the first field I planted died, but all the Farmers around said It will come back, so I waited, The second planted field did good, about 3 weeks into April, the first field was coming back but not a Good stand, so I went and got another bag of seed and replanted it, Yea Kinda Late. It made 60 bags of corn, with the front 2 acre's making 140 bags.

PLowhand, I live In Conway. I seen alot of corn here like you described. My Brother-in-law had some corn app 10ft with hardly no ears in a field close to mine.

Someone please give me a Idea if it is OK to plant corn in the Same location 2 years in a row. Thanks

[DaleK]

Well then there's the big difference, that 2 acres that didn't get frozen off didn't do too badly for a first effort. My math makes it about 80-85 bushels. Did you work up the corn that wasn't even after the frost or plant into it?

We can plant corn after corn here pretty easily as long as we watch the fertility (manure helps big) but we get nice cold (-40ish) winters to break disease cycles. Makes a big difference. I'm not sure it would work as well that far south. Have friends with hogs who've run continuous no-till corn for over 20 years with regular hog manure, fertility has increased over that time and yields have increased steadily with healthier soil every year.

[PD-Riverman]

Originally Posted by travlnusa

If the rain missed you a key time, the ears may not have silked out at the right time.

However my guess is that you planted to shallow or deep.

If I planted to shallow or to deep, what does this cause? I had a Real good stand of stalks, meaning pretty much all the seed came up, no open spots. I used a 1 row New Idea picker, I would hit sections in the field that there would be so many ears falling into the trailer you could not keep a count on them, then 10ft farther on the same row you might have 1 ear on ever other stalk and it might be a small ear, then might run into another section where there would be 2 or 3 nice ears on each stalk for a distance. Its All New To Me!! Thanks

[agmantoo]

It is OK to use the same land to plant corn. The 45 acre field in front of my house has been in corn for at least 8 consecutive years. Even made a decent crop this year with the drought.

[myheaven]

I have seen farmers plant corn in the same spot for so far 5 years I have been here. They just dump TONS of chemicals into the ground to make it grow. I for one rotate every year. Add a cover crop of rye, crown vetch, clover and or alfalfa. Till it in just before your ready to plant in the spring.
I personally like to run my pigs on it. Pig manure is the best. I love pigs.

[DaleK]

How did you apply the lime/fert/etc.? If there's that much variation within a row, unless there's a big change in soil type or there's a drainage problem or something, that makes it sound like possibly overapplication in one area and underapplication in another. Or else the planter was varying the population from one area to the next.

[PD-Riverman]

Originally Posted by myheaven

I have seen farmers plant corn in the same spot for so far 5 years I have been here. They just dump TONS of chemicals into the ground to make it grow. I for one rotate every year. Add a cover crop of rye, crown vetch, clover and or alfalfa. Till it in just before your ready to plant in the spring.
I personally like to run my pigs on it. Pig manure is the best. I love pigs.

Yea I wanted to get some pigs, but just have not got started yet. If you plant a Cover crop, do you plant it after you turn your pigs into the field for a while?

[PD-Riverman]

Originally Posted by DaleK

Well then there's the big difference, that 2 acres that didn't get frozen off didn't do too badly for a first effort. My math makes it about 80-85 bushels. Did you work up the corn that wasn't even after the frost or plant into it?

I figured about 50 bushels per acre for that field. The bags of ear corn will shell out to about 40lb per bag.

I re-disked the field and started over when I replanted it. Some of the corn from the first planting came up between the new planted row's, so I put 2ft wide sweeps on the cultivators and went across the field to clean out the rows then sprayed round-up. Oh, the rows were 36".

[rambler]

You can plant corn on corn.

Insects will build up in _some_ areas, not so much in other areas. I don't know much about your area, so can't help. Insecticides or BT (double or triple stacked GMO) will take care of this if it is a problem to your area.

If you alternate corn with beans, or add a clover or alfalfa as a cover crop, they produce about 40 lbs of N per acre for you. If you plant corn on corn, you likely need to add an extra 40 lbs of N to your fertilizer plan, since you won't get the 'free' N from the legume crop.

--->Paul

[PD-Riverman]

Originally Posted by DaleK

How did you apply the lime/fert/etc.? If there's that much variation within a row, unless there's a big change in soil type or there's a drainage problem or something, that makes it sound like possibly overapplication in one area and underapplication in another. Or else the planter was varying the population from one area to the next.

I used a Slinger, whirler bird or what ever you call it, but I was very careful to apply it as even as you can using one of these. I used two of the old one row Cole Planter. My stand of stalks were pretty equal. Also using the slinger, I went in the same direction as the rows, so I feel if I over applied or under applied I would have a row or two that was good and a row or two that was not instead of it being real good, then real bad on the same row. I bottomed plowed (turned) the fields, then in a couple weeks I disked the fields good and spread the lime, then in a couple weeks I redisked the field, then spread the fertilizer and planted the corn using hiller blades to create a raised bed, not to tall, with back sweeps and the 2 planters all in one pass.