Agronomist Notes
It’s been a busy week again with two more speaking engagements, a conference and client visits. I also had an interesting conversation with a writer from The Furrow magazine about seed singulation. I’ve had some great discussions with producers on crop rotations, inter-row seeding and adding lentils into the rotation. Most producers have had their seed cleaned by now so it’s time to run thousand kernel weights and see where seeding rates will be this spring.
There were some early order discounts on graminicides from Bayer and Syngenta this week at the retail level so be sure to contact your crop input dealer to see what’s up. I’m hearing some grassy and wild oat combo’s hovering around the $20 an acre mark!
This week’s Beyond Agronomy News will include row spacing and its effect on plant to plant competition. Then we’ll look at the Seven Wonders of the World with respect to corn yield. I’ll also compare the cost of grain bagging system to losing a bin of canola to heating and we’ll finish with fundamental and technical grain market news.
Maximizing plant densities in cereals
A few years ago I had a chance to visit Guinness World Record holders Chris Dennison and Mike Solari in New Zealand. Both gentlemen have grown world record wheat crops. It was there I learned the importance of plant spacing and canopy design in cereals. After some further research on row spacing and knowing what Mike and Chris could produce on six inch row spacing, I decided to look things differently.
First, when you look at the importance of row spacing, it really comes down to plant spacing. In a perfect world, our seed delivery systems would place each seed equidistant from each other so they could share resources equally and eliminate plant to plant competition. In doing this, each seed would have access to the same amount of sunlight, nutrients and water. As soon as this balance is upset, you create plant to plant competition and introduce unnecessary stress. I know I’d be stressed if I had to fight a big brother for food every day.
Next, to understand the roll of plant spacing, three things come into play: row spacing, opener width and seeding rate. When choosing row spacing, you really need to think about the kind of plant stand densities you’re trying to achieve. If you’re targeting high plant stand densities and heavy seeding rates, going to a narrow opener and wide row spacing is probably not in your best interest. To break it down further, I’ll go through a few examples.
Target plant stand density: 35 plants/ft2
Row spacing: 14”, 12”, 10”, 9”, 6”
Opener width: 1”
14” row spacing: 14”/row ÷ 12”/ft/row = 1.16 x 35 plants/ft2 ÷ 12”ft/row = 3.4 seeds per inch
12” row spacing: 12”/row ÷ 12”/ft/row = 1 x 35 plants/ft2 ÷ 12”ft/row = 2.9 seeds per inch
10” row spacing: 10”/row ÷ 12”/ft/row = 0.83 x 35 plants/ft2 ÷ 12”ft/row = 2.4 seeds per inch
9” row spacing: 9”/row ÷ 12”/ft/row = 0.75 x 35 plants/ft2 ÷ 12”ft/row = 2.1 seeds per inch
6” row spacing: 6”/row ÷ 12”/ft/row = 0.5 x 35 plants/ft2 ÷ 12”ft/row = 1.4 seeds per inch
You can see in this example that 14” row spacing with this high a plant stand density will cram 3.4 seeds into every inch of row. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for each seed to explore water, sunlight and nutrients, especially when you consider these seeds won’t be spaced evenly in an air delivery system. If we used 14” row spacing but reduced our plant density target to 24 plants per ft2, the seed spacing would only be 2.3 seeds per inch of row. This would provide enough space for each seed to grow and reduce the amount of undue stress caused by plant to plant competition.
If you look at the research on row spacing, 95% of the findings had narrow rows prevailing over wider rows. Does that mean we need to go back to six inch rows? Not a chance! It means we have to take a look at yield goals and the plant stand densities we need to achieve those targets. There’s a lot to be said for narrow row spacing in cereals in the way in affects plant spacing and canopy design. We need to be aware of the number of seeds we’re packing into each row with a focus on minimizing plant to plant competition. From there you can choose whatever opener width and row spacing combination you need to provide that optimum environment. SL
Reference: http://ag.montana.edu/carc/2008/hrswAgjournal08.pdf
Seven wonders of the corn yield world
I know, I know, why I am talking about. It’s not very often I discuss it but I thought I’d pass along an interesting video on the top seven factors effecting corn yield. In his quest to produce 300 bushel an acre corn, professor Fred Below from the University of Illinois has broken down the top seven things that play the biggest role in corn yield. I had a chance to meet Fred a few years ago in Illinois and he’s a very down to earth researcher. I think you could transfer the same top seven factors to canola or high yielding wheat. SL
Grain bags pay back this year
The more I think about storing canola, the more I start to like the versatility of grain bags and what they offer. There have been countless stories about heated canola this year, especially in my area. Some producers have lost upwards of $30 to $50 thousand dollars because of canola heating in the bin. In some cases, canola stored at 7.5% to 9% moisture heated in upright bins. These days, a four or five thousand bushel bin heating could cost a farm its profit.
On the flip side, people tell me all the time how they’ve stored canola at 10 to 13% moisture and took it out of the grain bag like it was the day they put it in. With canola hitting $13+ per bushel, perhaps we should be looking at an alternate storage alternative to avoid these costly events. Let’s run the numbers and see where grain bags really fit.
Grain bagger/unloader and grain cart = $90,000
Amortized over 7 years = $12,850/year
Seeding 1,000 acres of canola = an equipment cost of $12.85/ac per year
Equipment cost = $0.32/bu at 40 bu/ac average
Grain bags = $0.07/bu
Canola storage at 40 bu/ac = $2.80/ac ($0.07/bu x 40 bu/ac)
Total cost/ac per year = $15.65 ($12.85 + $2.80) or $0.39/bu
If you chose not to include the cost of the grain cart, the cost per acre would drop in half as a grain bagger system is roughly $45,000. Also, some grain bag loaders come with a swing auger to unload tandems. In the end, a farm that seeds 1,000 acres of canola each year will run a cost of $15.65/acre. Compare that to a 4,000 bushel bin that heats 20% and gets downgraded $7.00/bu. That $28,000 hit could pay for two years worth of payments on a grain bagging system that includes a grain cart. Not a bad investment when you pencil it out. I also like the added bonus of loading a 45 tonne B-train in 20 minutes when its -30oC outside. SL
Source: Mark Mutchka, Alberta Agriculture
Photo source: http://www.beavervalleysupply.com/sectiona/renn.htm
