Farm News
07-07-06
Randy Mudgett
KANAWHA — The No. 1 question presented to Iowa State University’s new
corn agronomist, Roger Elmore, from Iowa farmers has been can I plant more
continuous corn? Elmore’s answer is blunt: ‘‘Sure you can, but it will cost you
more each year.’’
The topic of farmers shifting more acres from traditional corn-soybean to more
corn and less soybeans in rotations was discussed at the Iowa State University
College of Agriculture’s Northern Research and Demonstration Farm summer
field day June 29 in Kanawha.
Elmore, who helped address the economic and research side of planting
continuous corn, told producers rising input costs mainly in the areas of seed,
fertilizer and herbicides will dictate profits for producers.
‘‘The risk is always higher when a farm shifts acres from a crop like soybeans to
corn,’’ Elmore said. ‘‘Plus, the facts show that you can expect a 5 percent to 15
percent decrease in yields by planting continuous corn.’’
Elmore, who has trained and worked in the field for several years in Illinois and
Nebraska, said the major input cost for producers who want to raise more corn to
help meet the growing demand is nitrogen. ‘‘Farmers think they can shift more
acres to corn, and I tell them, ‘Yes, you can,’ but you will need the price to be $3
a bushel on those acres in order to offset the yield drag.’’
High inputs
A major shift to producers planting more continuous corn in the Midwest has
been throttled by the demand for ethanol. As the industry continues to grow by
leaps and bounds each year, the grain futures market expects shortages of corn
in the near future, thus corn futures for December 2007 are $2.97 as of June 30
and $3.24 for December 2008.
‘‘The market is definitely bidding for more corn acres,’’ said Kelvin Leibold, ISU
Extension farm management specialist. ‘‘Whether farmers will plant more corn in
response remains to be seen.’’
Farmers planted 79.366 million acres of corn in 2006 according to USDA
estimates, down from 2005 corn acres by nearly 2.4 million acres. A shift to more
soybean production in 2006 has been blamed on sharp increases in energy costs
with fertilizer costs at the top of the list.
Elmore said, ‘‘It takes 59 more pounds of N to grow continuous corn, and still
with that, you will never gain back the yields you had on a corn-soybean
rotation.’’
Estimated increases of $1 per acre for fertilizer, $1.30 for seed and 70 cents per
acre for herbicide have been occurring each of the past few years which directly
affect farmers’ decisions on shifting acres from soybeans to corn, Elmore said.
Elmore said beside the economic shortfalls associated with raising more
continuous corn, research has shown over the past 20 years that continuous
corn suffers more disease, weed and insect pressure when grown year after year
after year.
‘‘There are a whole host of issues involved when acres are shifted to one crop
including planting date, storage problems and harvest pressure,’’ Elmore said.