Suggested Event
Jun 15, 2021 to Jun 17, 2021
What will you see when you begin scouting corn as it grows this season? Weather conditions and when you were able to plant will play a large role in what you might find as you begin walking your own cornfields.
Dave Nanda, director of genetics for Seed Genetics Direct, has encountered lots of different situations while walking cornfields during his long career. For the past several years, he has scouted the Corn Watch program field, which is a Farm Progress project sponsored by Seed Genetics Direct.
The purpose of Corn Watch is to follow a field in the eastern Corn Belt from planting to harvest and see how it develops, Nanda says. Some of the things that Nanda spots in this commercial cornfield could be similar to what you are seeing in your fields. The goal is to help you home in on where to focus your attention as you scout, and to increase your knowledge base so you can make more informed management decisions, both this year and i
Tom J. Bechman
PICK UP THE PATTERN: Notice the odd pattern of shorter, lighter-colored plants that runs diagonally but flips direction at the midpoint of this cornfield. Corn Watch: Tissue testing can help compare regular and affected plants.
Suggested Event
Jun 15, 2021 to Jun 17, 2021
The pattern was obvious in a cornfield Dave Nanda spotted on the way to look at the Corn Watch field in 2020. It was confusing, yet obvious. It begged for a follow-up.
What made this pattern unusual was that it reversed itself halfway through the field, Nanda says. He is director of genetics for Seed Genetics Direct, sponsor of Corn Watch ’21, and the main consultant who observes the Corn Watch field. The goal is to learn things through observations in the Corn Watch field that help you make more informed decisions on your fields.
Final sampling time
Samples were pulled at the V5 stage in 2020. Zinc was borderline. Adding it might have boosted yields, even though zinc was added with the starter. At the 12-leaf stage, tissue tests showed that key nutrient levels for nitrogen and potassium were dropping, most likely because the field had just suffered through a very dry period. Rain refreshed the plants, but nutrient levels weren’t up yet when samples were taken hours after the rain.
The recommended time to take the third sample if you’re only taking three is at R1, Bower says. According to the Purdue University Corn and Soybean Field Guide, it’s just before pollination and silking. By R2, kernels have formed blisters. In the Corn Watch 2020 field, samples were pulled at R2, which is still valuable information.
Tom J Bechman
LEAF SAMPLE AT V5: Betsy Bower demonstrates how to pull a tissue sample from five-leaf corn. It takes about 25 leaves at this stage for a sample. Corn Watch: Examples from Corn Watch ’20 illustrate potential value of tissue testing early.
If you push for super-high corn yields, you may be tissue-testing already. If not, it’s another tool to consider.
“We believe there is value in seeing if plants are taking up nutrients as we think they are,” explains Betsy Bower, an agronomist with Ceres Solutions, based in west-central Indiana. “If you’re just starting out, we suggest sampling in corn at least three times: at V5 or the five-leaf stage, around V12 and at the R1 pollination stage.”
Tom J. Bechman
DIFFERENT HATS: Dave Nanda has worn many hats as the corn seed industry evolved over time. He held an important role at Seed Consultants in the early 2010s until the company was sold. Breeder’s Journal: The introduction of traits in seed changed the landscape of growing corn.
Monsanto, a chemical company, shook up the whole seed industry in 1996. Monsanto announced that it had developed corn inbred lines resistant to its Roundup herbicide so that the herbicide could kill most weeds but not harm the corn hybrids carrying the gene for Roundup resistance. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, and now that it’s off patent, many other companies sell glyphosate herbicides.