$202 per acre: PTI trials reach highest yield, ROI

PONTIAC, Ill. — The Precision Technology Institute’s high yield corn trials reached its highest mark in both yield and return on investment in 2020.

Jason Webster, lead agronomist and director of Precision Planting’s PTI, said the yield reached 368.2 bushels per acre in the strip-till irrigated corn-and-soybean rotation trials.

“I thought it was 400, I really did. I thought we were going to get it, but we just missed the mark,” Webster said at the PTI Field Day on July 26. “So, I’m amazed by guys like David Hula (of Charles City, Virginia) and Randy Dowdy (of Valdosta, Georgia) who have these super high yields — 600-bushel plus in a lot of cases. I’m just amazed. 368.2 was the highest yield I’ve ever been able to grow.”

The top yield is 105.2 bushels per acre higher than the “status quo” corn on plots with normal dry land and DAP and potash applied.

“The strip-till high yield irrigated corn also had the top return on investment at $202.68 per acre. That’s what this thing is about. We’ve got to continue to make money if we’re going to go to all of the work of high management and spending the money for it,” Webster explained.

Seed weight contributed to the top yields.

The corn in the high yield trials was still green when it was harvested. The adjacent “status quo” corn next to it that wasn’t irrigated died and dried during a very dry August. The high yield corn, despite still being green, had 24% moisture at harvest.

“It was green and healthy because we didn’t kill it. We kept it alive. We kept spoon-feeding it. We didn’t do all of the fertilizer upfront in one application. We spoon-fed it through. We believe in reallocation. Don’t put all your fertilizer out at once. Apply a little at a time,” Webster said.

“We brought the corn to the elevator and it weighed 65 pounds. Yellow dent No. 2 corn typically weighs 56 pounds per bushel. We want corn that’s going to weigh like lead because that’s going to add bushels.

“There are some hybrids that weigh heavier than others and some lighter than others. But I think it’s the management. Feed this thing and try to get it to weigh.”

Right Place

Nutrient placement is the fuel that boosts the yield engines and the foundation for the high yields was what is referred to at PTI as a “five-point touch” through a combination of FurrowJet Center, FurrowJet Center and Wings, and Conceal. The combined treatment drove yields up 31.7 bushels per acre over the control strips.

FurrowJet firms the seed in the trench while placing bands of fertilizer on and near the seed, allowing early roots to access essential nutrients. Conceal is a planter fertility attachment that is tucked into the row-unit and place nutrition in the soil 3 inches away from the seed.

“We start with the planter and we have high concentrated bands of nutrition. We start with FurrowJet and this is where we’re putting things like sugars and biologicals in the furrow. Then we relay to the wings of FurrowJet where we’re looking at phosphorous and zinc,” Webster said.

“I’m limited to the amount of product I can put in the center of FurrowJet just because how close it is to the seed. That’s why we’re going to sugars and biologicals to be gentle there. Some of that is live product with that biological, so we don’t want anything to really harm that material. That’s why I’m positioning the phosphorous and zinc in the wings away from center.

“We then relay with Conceal. Conceal is going to be my high-horsepower products, the salt products if you will, like nitrogen, potassium, sulfur and boron. Those are products I can’t put in the furrow. They’re not seed safe, so we reposition them with Conceal 3 inches in away from the furrow about 1.5 inches deep and there’s no concern about crop safety and no risk at all.”

He added that his trials received 20 bushels per acre yield response from Conceal.

“If a grower comes to me today, tomorrow or next week and says, ‘I’m redoing my planter and I’m going to put one fertilizer attachment on my planter. What should I put on it?’ Most of the time I’m going to say Conceal would be the first thing. Why? This is a 20-bushel yield response. It’s my major horsepower,” Webster continued.

“What is it? Nitrogen, potassium, sulfur and boron can’t be placed close to the seed and Conceal is 3 inches away, 1.5 inches deep and so it’s safe. I don’t think anybody can mess it up. Now you go in-furrow with a product that can be a little touchy sometimes.

“But that’s where my big response is coming from. All of them are important. They help build. It’s that relay race. They’re contributing, but the biggest one on this farm is Conceal.”

The plants’ nutrient needs are addressed throughout the growing season through “spoon-feeding” with foliar and fertigation applications of fertilizers.

Reallocation

Webster said there will be a scenario somewhere out in the countryside this year “where you’re in a combine and you call your ag retailer, crop consultant or whoever it is and you say I need to get that field of mine soil tested. It’s due. So, they soil test it. You continue harvesting. About a week later your crop consultant or ag retailer calls you back say, ‘We have the results back. What yield goal do you want me to use?’ And the grower will say, ‘Make it for 225 bushel corn, 65-bushel soybeans or whatever. Go spread it.’

“We’ll go through that same scenario with our guys, but we’re going to say, ‘Wait a minute, yes, we need those totals of DAP and potash to go out in the field, but I’m also going to do things like come in with starter fertilizer on my planter and I need to reallocate.’ So, I need to remove some of the DAP and potash to help pay for some of these other applications and it eliminates me from over-applying nutrients.”