Corn country?

by Mark Parker

January 29, 2008 09:04 am

— They used to say that more seed corn was spilled in Iowa than got planted in southeast Kansas.
Of course, they used to say that corn wouldn’t work in this part of the world.
Southeast Kansas may never be a threat to take over the title of tall corn country but it is pretty clear that the crop’s presence—and its importance—have grown dramatically in recent years.
Back in the early ‘70s, southeast Kansas corn growers were planting roughly 100,000 to 150,000 acres per year. Those acres took a steep drop in 1975 and stayed well under 100,000 acres for the most part for the next 25 years, hovering around 50,000 acres throughout the ‘80s.
In the ‘90s, though, corn acres started coming back and these days, corn has blown right past 100,000 acres, past 200,000 acres and has exceeded 300,000 acres in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
“There has been a dramatic increase in corn acres in southeast Kansas,” observes Kansas State University Agronomist Jim Long. “I think there are a number of factors involved but the bottom line is that today’s hybrids and today’s practices fit our southeast Kansas weather better than any other crop.”
Long, who runs the crop variety performance tests at the Southeast Agricultural Research Center at Parsons, says innovative farmers who began experimenting with early planted short season hybrids got the ball rolling—and fine-tuned practices with better and better hybrids kept it going.
“There’s no doubt that shorter season hybrids planted early has been the key to corn success in southeast Kansas,” he asserts. “That has enabled us to produce more consistent yields because we’re able to get silking done by the third week of June, roasting ears by the Fourth of July and denting by mid-July. That allows us to beat a lot of the effects of hot, dry weather.”
The numbers clearly show the system is working. From 1970 to 1990, average yields for the Southeast Kansas Crop Reporting District broke over the 80-bushel mark only a couple of times and were much more typically well below that level.
In 1997, though, the area’s average yield went over 100 bushels per acre and it has exceeded the century mark in four of the past eight years:
•2000—111 bu./acre
•2001—95 bu./acre
•2002—93 bu./acre
•2003—84 bu./acre
•2004—117 bu./acre
•2005—103 bu./acre
•2006—83 bu./acre
•2007—113 bu./acre
“It’s pretty clear that farmers know how to grow corn better today and it’s also clear that we’re getting better and better hybrids to plant,” Long says. “The seed companies have really done a good job of developing and identifying hybrids that work in southeast Kansas.”
Generally, he points out, fuller season hybrids will always yield the highest as long as there’s plenty of water available.
Of course that’s the rub in southeast Kansas where mid-summer rains can be hard to come by. Long notes that while short season hybrids have been the key to making corn work in his part of the state, in recent years it has been the hybrids that crowd the fuller side of “short season” which are making top yields.
The researcher thinks it may, in part, be due to the fact that many are “shorter to silk and longer to fill” than some other hybrids.
“There could be other factors involved,” Long exp-ains. “Those hybrids simply may have better plant health but I think that beating the heat with early silking and then having a more extended period to catch some rain while the corn is filling is beneficial to yields. We’re not talking about a dramatic difference in terms of silking and filling dates but, over a period of years, those hybrids seem to have an advantage.”
A good share of the increase in corn acres came at the expense of milo. Through the ‘70s and ‘80s, southeast Kansas’ planted grain sorghum acres routinely topped 300,000 and often went over 400,000 acres. That total dropped below 200,000 acres for the first time in several decades in 2004 and went under 100,000 acres (99,000) planted acres in 2006.
Long points out that increases in corn yields in the area have outpaced milo yield advances. While grain sorghum yields have been fairly consistent year-in and year-out, they haven’t changed dramatically.
Through the ‘80s, milo yields averaged around 65 bushels per acre. From 2000 through 2006, they averaged about 69.5 bushels per acre.
Corn yields, on the other hand, averaged about 72 bushels per acre through the ‘80s compared to the 2000-2007 average of just under 100 bushels per acre.
What makes the increases in corn yields even more impressive, Long points out, is that most of the expanded plantings have taken place on upland soils.
For a look at the most recent corn hybrid and other crop performance test results from Kansas State University, go to www.kscroptests. agron.ksu.edu.

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