Agronomy Zone 18

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• Jeff Anderson (12)
• Clint Bounds (1)
• Dustin Ellis (1)
• John Furlong (11)
• Brian Hartman (9)
• Rich Howe (3)
• Brad Johnson (3)
• Bill Kessinger (13)
• Dave Koehn (6)
• Tony Lenz (20)
• Doug McCleary (2)
• Tony Pleggenkuhle (11)
• Matt Raml (1)
• Kyle Ross (16)
• Jim Rowley (15)
• Kevin Ryan (15)
• Todd Schomburg (6)
• Doug Score (2)
• Stine Seed (21)
• Trevor Stockstad (3)
• Louis Sutton (18)
• Kenneth Wolf (3)

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Today’s seed industry is more competitive than ever.  On any given day, you have multiple companies telling you their seed is the best. Many of these companies are even owned by the same parent company, leaving you more confused and exhausted than ever before. 

As a privately-owned company, Stine takes a different approach to the market. We do not use an office full of marketing gurus who twist numbers to say what they want. We take a simple approach of performing extensive research, in-house, in field, and with independent companies such as F.I.R.S.T. (Farmers Independent Research Strip Trials). This type of approach to the market allows our company representatives, including dealers, to have full confidence in the product they are providing to meet your individual needs. 

Urban America sometimes fails to realize how important farmers, and the crops they produce, are to the world. I was recently talking to some "urbanites"and I found the conversation rather humorous.  For example, they commented on how we people eat the same things as cows do, “sweet corn.”  Another corn misperception they had was that Farmer Joe's ground must be better, and subsequently worth more, because his corn tasted better. Their reasoning for that one only became clear to me once I discovered that they had once stopped along the road and, not knowing the difference, picked some field corn for supper! 

After explaining to them more about corn, and all its uses, I thought I would pass on some fun corn facts:

• How many kernels are on an average ear of corn?  640
• How many kernels are in one pound?  1,300
• How many kernels are in an average (150 bushel) acre?  10,920,000

For you soft drink people:

• America's favorite sweetener is made from corn, capturing more than 50 percent of the non-diet sweetener market.
• Every major non-diet soft drink on the market uses high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener.
• Many powdered drinks, like lemonades and fruit drinks, use crystalline fructose made from corn.

Although paper is made from trees not corn:

• Nearly every single sheet of printing paper uses cornstarch to improve printability.
• Paper packaging materials such as corrugated cardboard, also use cornstarch.
• Each ton of paper produced uses 28 pounds of cornstarch.

Where else does the corn produced get used?

• More than half of the crop puts meat on American dinner tables.  A bushel of corn fed to livestock produces: 5.6 pounds of retail beef, 13 pounds of retail pork, 19.6 pounds of chicken, or 28 pounds of catfish.
• Paints that are more environmentally friendly than their petroleum counterparts.
• CMA (Calcium Magnesium Acetate) is a non-corrosive road de-icer made from Corn or Petroleum.  CMA does not contain sodium or chloride so it is safe in watersheds and agricultural areas and will not damage roads and bridges.

All in all, there are more than 3,500 different uses for corn products, with more uses found daily. 

As I travel the countryside and talk to different growers learning of their operational concerns, the one concern that keeps coming up is, “How do I manage my corn stalk residue?” This is a great question, and the number one limiting factor to successful corn-on-corn operations.

For some, the answer is as simple as tillage. For others in no-till or minimum till situations, it requires a bit more management while selecting your hybrids to plant. Stine Seed Company offers a full lineup of corn hybrids with excellent emergence in cooler no-till soils and you will not have to worry all summer about getting rid of the 12 foot tall corn plant after harvest. Ever wondered why you need a corn plant 12 foot tall?

One of the many benefits to corn from Stine Seed Company is our extensive research and breeding program. Our research field planting allows each hybrid to prove itself in a 6 row trial while only harvesting the middle 4 rows (eliminating the shading effect). This process gives us an unbiased look at every hybrid. Most other companies rely on trials as few as 2 rows each, harvesting both rows, leaving the taller of the competing hybrids to shade out the other hybrid - therefore sold.

Some believe the application of UAN after harvest will speed up the decomposition process. The verdict is still out on this, but without cooperating weather there is a good chance the UAN will be lost due to volatization if it is not incorporated in the soil. The most important part of stalk decomposition is the microbe activity, which is greatly dependant on soil moisture, temperature, and the contact with the soil microbes.

So, why plant a hybrid that is twelve feet tall when you can plant a hybrid from Stine that will likely result in less residue and higher yields?

Charcoal Rot was once again found in the drought suffering areas throughout the Midwest.  The disease is caused by Macrophomina phaseolina, which strives in hot dry weather when soil temperatures are 80-95°F for 2-3 weeks.

Because of its characteristics, Charcoal Rot is often mistaken for Brown Stem Rot (BSR). Both will often exhibit pith discoloration; the big difference is that BSR will most likely discolor the pith on the whole plant, whereas Charcoal Rot will not have any pith discoloration above the 5th node.  In addition, Charcoal Rot will also produce microsclerotia, which are tiny black fungal structures that look similar to charcoal dust, but may need a magnifying glass to identify.

Management of Charcoal Rot should be taken seriously.  The disease that causes Charcoal Rot, Macrophomina phaseolina, has more than 500 hosts.  Corn, alfalfa, and white clover are some of the more common hosts.  In fields with severe infestations of Charcoal Rot, we need to consider rotation with small grains such as wheat or barley to help reduce the populations.  If a wheat rotation isn’t possible, then we need to take every measure possible to reduce late season stress on those fields, including:

• Avoid excessive seeding rates so plants do not compete for moisture.
• Keep fields weed free all year long-weeds can use a tremendous amount of water as well as be a host.
• Consider planting earlier-maturing varieties to shorten the effect of the dry period at the end of the growing season.
• No varieties are resistant, but do have different levels of tolerance.
• Seed treatments have not been proven to help reduce the risk, although they might help reduce stress which magnifies Charcoal Rot.
• Tillage has not been proven to reduce levels of charcoal rot but I have to believe no-till systems enhance survival because the pathogen overwinters in crop residue.  
• Charcoal Rot is a weather driven disease.  Soybeans must be in a moisture stressed situation, with soil temps 80-95°F for 2-3 weeks.