Corn yields not meeting expectations

TREMONT, Ill. — From the outside looking in, the corn looks good. However, yield monitors are telling a different story.

When AgriNews last met with Brad Zimmerman in mid-August, he was analyzing the root structure of corn to check the plant’s ability to uptake nutrients and, in turn, feed the soil biology.

He found issue in some roots that were already turning brown and developing a woody pith that shuts off uptake. He thinks there’s more to the story than just disease cutting down yields.

You began harvesting corn around Labor Day weekend. What are you seeing in the fields?

Zimmerman: I had some April-planted corn, 109-day corn, and it dried down to about 23%. We harvested that because we were curious as to what it was going to do. The corn looked so good all year with very little disease, but then you walk out into it, and you kind of see the kernel counts aren’t there.

So, we wanted to get the combine out there to see what it was going to do, and, honestly, it was pretty disappointing. Light test weight, fewer kernels, ears are lighter. Crown rot and stalk rot, which we saw last time we met, started coming into play.

It’s kind of mysterious because the corn looked so good, it was looked healthy, it was green, it was tall, and looked beautiful, then you take the combine through, and it’s disappointing. It’s off by 20, 30, 40 bushels from what guys are expecting.

I’m still trying to figure out what the main cause is, because it’s not like it’s hybrid-dependent. It’s across-the-board, and good farmers who are used to getting 260-bushel corn, are harvesting 230-bushel corn. That’s a big deal.

What’s your theory as to why this happened?

Zimmerman: I’m just trying to figure out why that is. There was very little disease. We had plenty of nitrogen.

We did have 12 inches of rain in June in this area. So, whether that pushed the nitrogen out of reach, or, one of my thoughts is, 12 inches of rain is going to drown your microbiome, your biology, bacteria and fungi, and so they needed to repopulate.

So, was there a period of time in June where you didn’t have your biology supplying that corn plant with nutrients? Could that have kind of stalled the plant out until it got going back again?

It’s kind of like driving on Wacker Drive in Chicago with all the stoplights, stop and go, stop and go, that’s not very efficient. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or if that was part of it, but that’s what I’m trying to figure out.

What do you see in the ears you pulled from another field Sept. 17?

Zimmerman: I have three ears from three plants right next to each other in a row. They had an even stand, same hybrid, same practices, same everything, and one ear has good weigh and the other two are about half the weight.

The two light ears are a majority of the field and the ear with good weight is an anomaly. Whereas, the heavier ear is what it looks like most years. You see that a lot of these kernels pollinated and they wanted to stay on there, but the plant was like, “I just can’t do it,” and so they aborted these kernels.

Crown rot, stalk rot were a big deal this year. We’ve seen it a lot. We’ve seen down-corn. Hopefully, we don’t see any more wind events.

With harvest cranking up, the price of diesel at record highs. Is there any kind of different strategy during harvest that you’re going to need to use or did you buy a lot of diesel fuel upfront before the price spike? How will that impact your operation?

Zimmerman: We don’t have a ton of on-farm storage, so it is what it is. There’s really not a whole lot that can be done for that. You try and find ways to minimize and be more fuel efficient, whether it’s wait until the corn dries down a little bit. Trying to reduce tillage is also a good way to do that, as well.

It’s brutal. It’s one of the things that you don’t think about. It’s up 35%, 40% from last year. So, with the trucks that we use, we may not be able to sit in the field and let it idle and have the air conditioning on anymore. We got to roll the window down.

Has any cover crop seeding began in your area?

Zimmerman: I have guys that have planted cover crops behind pumpkins and seed corn. There’s been quite a bit that’s been planted, which is great. The middle of September is a great time to get out there and get some growth on it.

There’s a lot of interest in cover crops this year due to 45Z, because going back one year is what they look at. So, guys want to get it on now, and take advantage of that, because cover crops are the biggest mover of your carbon intensity score.

We are doing some CoverCress this year. That’s new. We have a couple hundred acres of CoverCress going out this fall, and we’re going to see what happens there and play around with that a little bit.

The reason we’re looking at is we like the rotation. We like having wheat in the rotation, but you don’t harvest wheat until the Fourth of July, and then it’s hard to get double-crop beans at this latitude.

CoverCress has a different kind of roots — it’s a brassica — but there’s also a market being developed for it, so you can get compensated for it.

It can also be harvested at the end of May and still plant your soybeans and have another month of growth from soybeans.

CoverCress is a rotational cash crop that fits into existing corn-soybean rotations. The grain is crushed for producing oil that can be used for renewable fuels. Is there a market for CoverCress?

Zimmerman: CoverCress was bought by Bayer. So, Bayer, Chevron and Bunge have a partnership to bring it to market. They go from genetics all the way to refining it.

Now that sustainable aviation fuel is a thing, they’ve got the Renewable Identification Numbers credits for it in the last two months and there’s going to be a market for it.

It’s going to start taking off. They’re on tens of thousands of acres this year, and I think they want to double that for next year. So, there’ll be a market for it and they’ll have some place to go.

CoverCress is fairly easy to do. You’re using the same combine and your soybean platform to harvest it. You plant it with a drill or we’re using an air seeder on a vertical till. You can follow corn or soybeans. There’s minimal fertilizer needed for it.

They also have a plant, so you truck it straight from the field to their dedicated plant. So, you don’t have to store it.

It’s not a difficult thing to do. The hardest part is you’ve got to get the combine out in May when there’s a bunch of stuff going on, too.

You were elected to the Illinois Soybean Association board in late July as District 5 director, representing Knox, Putnam, Marshall, Peoria, Fulton and Tazewell counties. What led you to being involved in ISA as a director?

Zimmerman: About five years ago I was asked to be a Soy Envoy. That’s how I came into knowing about the soybean board. Before that, it was just kind of like one of those things out there that I really didn’t know much about.

But the last five years, they have really make it made a concerted effort to bring value to the growers that are paying into the soybean checkoff, whether it’s by education or field trials or partnerships with the University of Illinois or communications about policies and things like that. They’ve built a great team and I think they have started to bring a ton of value to the farmer.

When I hopped on as a Soy Envoy it was for one year. And just trying to bring awareness, what’s new, what are guys trying and what are we seeing? Early planting was a big deal around that time. That’s kind of when that started.

I had a lot of fun working with Abigail Peterson, ISA director of agronomy, and the agronomists, and I had been in contact with them at industry events. I got to meet John Lumpe, the CEO. He’s a great guy and he has a great vision for Illinois soy.

So, when the opportunity came up and I was asked to join as District 5 director, it wasn’t a hard decision.