Producers Blog

David Kinnison (DSM, Region 3 – Western Nebraska)

Greetings from North East Colorado! I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is David Kinnison and I reside in the small town of Ovid, Colorado. The area I cover ranges between some of the Panhandle of Nebraska, all of northeast Colorado and the eastern side of Wyoming. I have been extremely blessed to be married to my wife, Sharla, for going on 28 years. We have two fantastic children that are the joy of our lives. Kim, our daughter, currently lives in Denver working and putting herself through college attending C.U. Denver where she is majoring in Urban Transportation.  Our son Korry, a chip off the old block, has a love of the land and is currently involved in a farming operation. Korry also recently got engaged to a fantastic girl by the named of Holly Blagdon.

I grew up on a family farm and was a self-employed farmer for over 20 years before entering the seed business. Our farm was primarily flood irrigated with some pivot irrigation. Our main crop was irrigated corn.

Since water has been such a hot topic recently due to the drought, I thought I would spend some time talking about water use in corn production.  Planter speed and seed depth are both important when it comes to water in corn production.

You may be wondering, how does planter speed and seed depth have anything to do with water use? For the best root development in a corn plant, keeping our seed at a minimum of a 2” depth will let the plant develop the best root system the genetics of that plant are capable of, which translates to a larger deeper root system. The healthier the root system, the greater the water uptake, producing healthier plants with a higher yielding grain fill.

Optimum planting speed depends on planting conditions (usually under 5 miles per hour). The bottom line with planter speed is to keep the unit bounce to a minimum, allowing your planter to place the seed at the correct depth and spacing. Any bounce in a row unit will result in a shallow seed placement, contributing to yield loss at harvest time.

The following information I took from the NebGuide, a fantastic resource of information.

How much water is needed through different growth stages of a corn plant per day? Average water use rates for corn growth stages:

Emergence 0.08”, 4 leaf 0.10”, 8 leaf 0.18”, 12 leaf 0.26”, early tassel 0.32”, silking 0.32”, blister .032”, early dent .24”, full dent .20” and maturity .10”.

It is very important to know your soil types, soil depths and the water holding capacities for best utilizing the amount of irrigation that is needed for optimum yield.

Soil types and their water holding capacities per inch/foot of depth:

Course Sand 0.25-0.75 inch moisture holding capacity per foot of soil

Fine Sand  0.75-1.00

Loamy Sand  1.10-1.20

Sandy Loam  1.25-1.40

Fine Sandy Loam  1.50-2.00

Silt Loam  2.0-2.5

Silty Clay Loam  1.8-2.0

Silty Clay  1.5-1.7

Clay  1.2-1.5

To better utilize our water resources to achieve our corn yield expectations, we can help ourselves by doing the best job possible with our planters. Correct depth and spacing of seed are both very important aspects to planting.   As an equipment dealer once told me, “that planter you’re looking at is the one piece of equipment on your farm that can make you a lot of money.  It can also cost you a fair chunk of money…it just depends on how you run it and treat it.”  Correct depth and planter speed combined with exceptional products will give you the best results each year! If you ever have any questions about Producers Hybrids products or anything else, please contact myself or the Producers DSM in your area.