Producers Blog
Be Specific, Not Speedy
Aaron Ahrenholz (Sales Agronomist, Region 2 – Minnesota)
It is April 1st as I am writing this, and when I look out my window there is snow on the ground and the temperature this morning was a balmy 18 degrees. By no means am I a meteorologist, but I think it is safe to say that the start of planting season this year will be normal at best if not slightly later than what we have had the past few years. When conditions do become fit for planting, I know all of us will be ready to go and try to get as much done as quickly as we can. If we get started a few days or a week later than normal or if a rain event is on the way, it can be easy to push the throttle ahead and try to get a few more acres done in a day.
This winter I had the opportunity to hear about Precision Planting from a few different speakers. They spoke about planter settings, products and features. I am not here to promote any certain brand of product, but there were some very good points that were made that pertain to every grower that will be putting seed into the ground this spring, no matter what type of planter you may be using. Here are two of the main points that I took from these meetings pertaining to planting speed and how it can affect yield:
Spacing: On average, every 1-inch deviation in plant spacing resulted in a 2.5 bushels/acre loss of yield. Here is an example with 6-inch spacing being the target:
6 6 6 6 6 = 6-inch average
5 7 6 5 7 = 6-inch average
Both checks averaged a 6-inch spacing, but the bottom example had a deviation of 2 inches from high to low, thus potentially reducing yield by 5 bushels/acre.
Uniform emergence: At 30,000 plants per acre with an average ear size of 18 rows around by 36 kernels long, if we were to lose one viable plant per 1/1000th of an acre (on 30 inch rows this would be one plant in 17ft 5 inches per row) thus reducing our stand to 29,000 ppa, this would result in a yield loss of about 8 bushels/acre. This one lost plant could be the result of a skip that occurred from seed being jarred off the plate or from planter bounce resulting in a kernel getting planted too shallow and not having adequate moisture to germinate right away, resulting in delayed emergence and thus basically becoming a weed from then on out.
Other factors can certainly cause both of the above mentioned things to happen (check out some of our prior blog posts on planter maintenance), but excess planting speed usually is the main reason for these to occur. I wish there was a planting speed that I could guarantee would work on all of your fields every year, but as you all know every field is different. However, there is one constant. What you do on that one day of planting will ultimately affect your operation for the following 364 days or so until you get the opportunity to plant another crop. If we are going to continue to feed the growing world population, we are going to need to maximize yield and it all starts at placing that seed in the best situation possible.
