Growing Corn and Corn Silage on a Budget
Whether you grow corn for grain or silage, learn
about some management factors you can
control.
Posted: May 18, 2016
Milk price has a significant impact on Pennsylvania
Agriculture. The current dip in the price has dairy farmers
asking “What inputs can I cut back on to reduce my cost of
production and not greatly reduce my yield?”
This is a difficult question to address broadly, but I will try
and highlight some points I made this winter when I presented
on “Tips for saving $100 an acre in Corn Production”.
First I strongly suggest you look at an Enterprise Budget for
corn and determine your costs. The Penn State Agronomy
Guide has budgets for corn silage, corn after corn and corn
after soybeans. Top costs for corn for grain include: land rent,
fertilizer, seed, machinery depreciation and pesticides.
Obviously lowering land rent would be nice but if not
possible, savings will likely come from machinery
depreciation, fertilizer, fuel/drying costs and pesticides.
Be careful cutting seed costs
Hybrid selection is the single biggest factor you can control. It
can have a yield swing of 70 bushel per acre or 12,000 pounds
of milk per acre (silage). Farmers need to determine if yields
can be maintained while lowering seed costs. Potential
avenues for lowering seed costs include lowering seeding
rates, switching genetics and opting for fewer traits. We often
don’t have insect pressures that requires control of all the
above ground pests (black cutworm, corn earworm, European
corn borer, fall armyworm, stalk borer, western bean
cutworm), but corn rootworms are more of a concern for corn
on corn acres that don’t get rotated with another crop like
soybeans or alfalfa. Herbicide tolerance is an individual
decision, but if you do spend the money for herbicide
tolerance you better plan on using that herbicide in your spray
program. A $325 bag of seed compared to a $200 bag of seed
corn with a 32,000 seed drop = $80/acre for the $200 bag and
$128 for the $325 bag. That’s a saving of $48/acre; it will take
about 12 bushel at $4/bushel to offset that cost or over
additional ton of corn silage per acre. Depending on what
plant population you have been planting you may be able to
lower your plant population by a couple thousand seeds per
acre and save a few bucks.
Soil Test
Use a current soil test to determine your fertilizer needs. You
can’t manage every field the same, they will likely have
different manure histories and yield potential. If P and K
values are in the optimum range it is likely that adding
additional P and K fertilizer will not increase yields this year.
Calculate N-P-K contributions from manure applications.
Don’t forget about Nitrogen credits from previous years
manure applications. Rather than applying all your nitrogen at
planting, why not wait until the corn is about knee high (V6)
and test with a Pre-sidedress Soil Nitrate Test for corn to
determine if additional nitrogen in needed.
Lime
Keeping the soil pH in the optimum range is important. Corn
can tolerate a pH as low as 6.0, but alfalfa fields should not be
lower than 6.5. For fields with a low pH, given the choice
whether to buy fertilizer or buy lime, first apply at least some
of the lime that is recommended.
Starter fertilizer is another input that often does not payback,
especially on a dairy farm with high P levels and when
planting into soils that are warm.
Spray your own Crops
If you already own a sprayer and can get it done timely, you
can save money by spraying yourself. This allows you to shop
around for pesticides and also UAN, if you use that as a
nitrogen source. That $10-12 application fee adds up if you
spray a few hundred acres.
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Scout
Weeds can have the biggest impact on yield, followed by
insects and lastly diseases. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
is the best way to determine if a pesticide application is
necessary and economical.
Crop Insurance
I know it is past the deadline, but don’t eliminate crop
insurance, consider the options. Talk with your agent to get a
program that fits your operation.
Impact of corn management decisions on
yield
• Weather: is the biggest factor but you can’t change it (70+
bushel variation)
• Hybrid selection: can have a yield swing of 70 bu or
12,000 pounds of milk per acre(silage) This is the largest
variable you have control over.
• Crop rotation: yield increase 10-19%(corn after corn will
have a yield drag)
• Seed Treatment: decreases death loss to 5-10%
• Soil Fertility: can decrease yield by 20-50%
• Plant population: 0-22%, 24,000 would be the lower
threshold.
• Pest control: timeliness is everything, 1st weeds, 2nd
insects, 3rd diseases
• Harvest: 0-20% loss potential due to late harvest
For more information on Corn Silage see Penn State Extension
Corn Silage and Production and Management Webpage.
Contact Information
Andrew Frankenfield
Extension Educator, Agronomy
[email protected]
610-489-4315
Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences research and extension programs
are funded in part by Pennsylvania counties, the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Growing Corn and Corn Silage on a Budget