Iowa Farmer Today
12-02-06
Eastern test plot averages nearly top 200 bushels
By Tim Hoskins, Iowa Farmer Today
Like many Iowa farmers, Jim Rouse was pleasantly surprised with yields
reported at harvest.
Rouse, project leader for Iowa State University’s Corn and Soybean Variety
testing program, says overall yields were close to last year’s numbers for corn.
“It surprised a lot of people,” he says of the yields in the corn test.
Some locations, mostly those in Eastern Iowa, had yields of close to 200 bushels
per acre.
In the Southeast district, all four sites reported average yields for each site
between 190-197 bu. /acre. In the East Central district, Rouse says the three site
averages were 190-201
bu. /acre
The Northeast district sites reported yields of 195-199 bu./acre.
“We were happy with that,” he says.
Generally, just like farmers and the USDA reported, Eastern Iowa did better than
the Western part of the state. The results of this year’s ISU corn yield trial are in
this week’s issue of Iowa Farmer Today.
Rouse says the locations in Northwest Iowa had some of the driest conditions.
He says they had a yield of less than 180 bu./acre.
Yields were not the only pleasant surprise in the yield test.
As harvest approached, Rouse says he was hearing reports of lodged corn and
stalk issues.
However, when the combines got going, there was only one site where lodged
corn became a problem. That site was near Charles City, and the data was not
included in the report.
“That was another pleasant surprise,” he says.
The higher price for corn was another pleasant surprise for many farmers this
fall.
In the yield result report, Rouse has listed an adjusted income for hybrids.
To compensate for higher corn prices this year, he raised the corn price from
$2.25 to $2.50 when figuring the adjusted income for each hybrid.
“I know that is less than the current cash price, but I know a lot of guys had a
forward contract for less than $2.50,” he says.
To figure a different corn price, Rouse says farmers can divide by $2.50, then
multiply by any price they want.
As the price of corn goes up, the better it makes corn harvested with higher
moisture content, he says.
Rouse says shrinkage and costs of drying corn will remain in the equation.
However, seed costs and fertilizer inputs are not factored into the adjusted
income for each hybrid because they vary from farmer to farmer.
When looking at the test yield results, he says the two-year average is the most
important thing to look at. Averages across different districts should be next on
the list.
He says farmers should look beyond the results of the test site closest to them.
The different districts and an early and late season test are available at
www.croptesting.iastate.edu/corn/reports.php.
The early and late season tests replace the tall and short tests. Rouse says there
is some overlap in hybrids.
A full-season hybrid in the North is about the same as an early season in Central
Iowa, and a full season in Central district is an early season hybrid in the South.
However, there is one adjustment. The difference between an early and fullseason hybrid was adjusted in the South. Otherwise, there would be mostly early
season hybrids in the South.
“There is no hard and fast rule,” Rouse says about how they separated full- and
early season hybrids.
The goal of separating the full and early hybrids is to allow for better
management of the corn test. There are about the same number of entries in
each test.
The default on the Web site is to sort for the top yield. However, users can click
on the column, such as adjusted income, traits and shrinkage.
Rouse says he would like to make the Web site useful so farmers can sort more
than one attribute. For example, he says ideally he would like it so farmers can
search for a Roundup Ready hybrid, followed by yield.
The overall goal is to help farmers narrow their comparisons so they can
compare 2 to 10 hybrids.
Rouse reports participation in this year’s yield trials was up, compared with last
year. There were 42 brand names and 391 hybrids entered this year.