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Thinking seriously about planting more corn-on-corn acres?
If so, it's a good bet you are also considering what you can do to maximize yield potential on those acres.
Effectively managing the unique challenges of the continuous corn cropping environment will significantly impact your success. A well thought-out plan that includes these key management practices can help you reach your production goals:
Hybrid selection. Base your selections on risk management. In this higher risk environment, agronomic stability is a critical hybrid characteristic for success. Select hybrids with good stand establishment, early vigor, stress tolerance, disease resistance, and standability. Stress tolerance is often overlooked when selecting corn-on-corn hybrids, but its importance is apparent in a drier-than-average year. Talk to your seed representative about proven hybrids for corn-on-corn. We recommend that you rotate hybrids from year to year on specific acreages.
Nitrogen management. Consider increasing the nitrogen rate on continuous corn acres. There will be less nitrogen carried over from a previous crop of corn, and there will be substantially increased immobilization. Consider applying nitrogen closer to the uptake period, placing some early and close to the seedling in the form of starter or weed/feed combinations.
Corn rootworm management. With the advent of seed technology that puts rootworm protection in the plant, growing corn-on-corn profitably has become much easier. Selecting hybrids with Agrisure 3000GT, Herculex XTRA, YieldGard Plus, or YieldGard VT Triple technologies is a great way to go. If you do not choose in-the-plant protection, you MUST aggressively monitor and manage corn rootworms with an insecticide.
Increased disease pressure. Heavy pressure can occur from gray leaf spot, northern and southern leaf blights, eyespot, and physoderma brown spot, all of which overwinter in residues. Also, stalk and ear rots such as diplodia, fusarium, charcoal, anthracnose, and gibberella may be more prevalent. Make hybrid selections that factor in the increased disease pressure of the corn-on-corn environment. Plan to scout for disease pressure and use a foliar fungicide when warranted.
Planting considerations. Plant early, but make sure soil temperatures are at least 50 degrees. Move residues for better seed placement and to provide warmer soils in row. Assure good seed-to-soil contact. To get optimum plant spacing, reduce planting speeds.
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| Agrisure is a trademark of a Syngenta Group Company. Herculex is a registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences LLC. YieldGard and YieldGard VT Triple are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technology, LLC. |
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