Ottumwa Courier, IA
02-16-07
Some farmers want to plant another corn harvest
Increase in prices has farmers looking at second yield
BY SCOTT NILES Courier staff writer
OTTUMWA — With the high prices of corn right now, some farmers are wanting
to plant another harvest of the corn crop this year.
Mark Carlton, Iowa State University Extension field specialist for southeast
Iowa, said it is the economical thing to do right now with the way the prices have
risen.
Corn prices were between $3.50 and $4 a bushel Friday afternoon.
Even though farmers will endure some extra cost with pesticides and fertilizers,
the high profit is enough to drive them to re-plant their fields as corn ground.
Carlton said there are a few drawbacks to doing this.
With similar crops being planted two years in a row, there is a higher chance of
root worms eating away at the yields.
“Root worms don’t eat soybean roots; they only eat corn roots,” he said. “So, if
you planted soybeans they would starve to death. But, if farmers plant corn
again, they will be able to feed.”
The additional cost of $13 to $18 an acre for root worm control insecticides is not
that big of a price to pay. “It still works out to be the better of the two,” Carlton
said.
Farmers also will have to add roughly 50 pounds of extra nitrogen to each acre of
their fields to replace the nutrients lost. This will cost around $20 more per acre.
“Altogether, a farmer is looking at around $40 to $50 an acre in additional costs,”
he said. “It is still good, though, as long as the prices stay high and yields come
out high.”
But, with corn on corn ground, Carlton said farmers can expect at least a nine
percent decrease in yields per acre.
“It isn’t a lot, but it still hurts the profit a little bit,” he said.
Wapello County Farmer Lloyd Durflinger said this isn’t what it used to be. He has
farmed a couple hundred acres of ground east of Ottumwa, for over 50 years. He
has done the corn on corn rotation before and said it wasn’t as good.
“They didn’t have the corn seeds like they do now,” Durflinger said. The hybrid
corn seeds reduce the amount of yields lost with a corn on corn rotation.
“They have products that can reduce the loss,” he said. “It’s not like it used to
be.”