Corn - Lore of Yore and More

Corn Harvest

As the 2012 corn harvest arrives in NW Kansas - about 2 weeks ahead of schedule - I have a little test for our corn producing readers.  My source for this material is Winston's Cumulative Loose-Leaf Encyclopedia - a set of 10 volumes in my old, eclectic, home library.  Let's see how many of you can come up with the answers to the following questions.

1)  The corn harvesting picture to the right comes from the encyclopedia as a current photo.  What year does it represent?  You win if you're within 5 years either way.  NO peeking at the answers below!!

2)  According to this source, the types of corn being produced in the US are:  sweet; dent; pod; flint; pop; and soft.  Which of these 6 types is the most common corn produced in the US at the time the encyclopedia was sold, and which is the least common?

3)  Reed's Yellow, Funk's Yellow, Leaming, Reilley's Favorite, Clarage, Hogue's Yellow, and Silver Mine are the most popular varieties of corn grown in the corn belt of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Eastern Kansas.  What part of the corn belt preferred Silver Pride, Murdock, Wimple's Yellow, Pickett's Yellow and Golden Eagle?

4)  What is the distinguishing trait of the following corn varieties common in the Southern states which were known as:  Lewis' Prolific; Hickory King; Neal's Paymaster; Cocke's; Albermarle; Whatley's; Mosby's; Hastings; Marlborough; and Batt's?  

OK, you may not know the answers to these questions, but do you come away with the idea that there were a lot of corn varieties back then?  The article claims an estimated 175 varieties available.  The story goes on to say that anywhere from 4 to 7 years is the normal fallow period between corn crops if good yields are to be maintained.  Moreover, planting populations are from 10,000 to 12,000 plants per acre on 40 to 44 inch rows, and it takes a four-month growing season for an average crop.  It's obvious that this material is referencing a time before the current age of irrigation.  The year this article references, the US corn production was reported to be 2.866 billion bushels.  And finally, the advice on the proper time to plant your corn crop is "..when the leaves of the oak are the size of a squirrel's ear in your locality..".  That should be the dead give-away!  Got the year figured out yet?

The encyclopedia is the 1918 edition citing 1916 and 1917 corn stats.  Today, the NW Kansas producers typically plant a 28,000 - 32,000 plant population per acre on 30 inch rows of continuous corn.  Of course, these are irrigated corn stats.  In 2011, the Thomas County, Kansas projected corn yield alone was 22,900,000 bushels - 1/100th of the entire U.S. corn production in 1916.  We've come a long way since then.

Oh, the answers.  1)  1917 (if you answered 1912-1922 I'm giving this one to you!);  2)  Dent is by far the most common and Pod is the least common;  3) The northern corn belt area of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas and northern Illinois and Indiana;  4)  They were two-eared corn varieties.

If you got these questions right, you're either very well read, an ardent ag historian, or older than dirt with a very good memory!  Thanks for stopping by.

National Yield Contests

Is it just me, or are the national yield contests sending the wrong message?  Let's talk corn. 

I know corn yield contests are supposed to be about increasing production to feed a hungry world, but they can also push input limits - fertilizers, micro nutrients, water - to the max as well.  In every case, promoting the elusive 400 bushel per acre corn yield can be considerably input (water) intensive.   I also know there are a number of classes in the contest, including non-irrigated - and this is fine.  In 2008 over 6,000 participants were in the national corn growing contest - pushing their production skills to the limit.  And 2010 was the 49th year of the contest.

Most ag schools will tell you that maximum yield rarely (if ever) provides the producer the best net returns.  Like yield's response to water being curvilinear toward the top end, (See earlier irrigation post) yield response to fertilizer and all other inputs is the same.  It simply ends up costing the producer more in inputs than the last few bushels of grain are worth - thus lowering net returns.  Unfortunately, yield contests are all about top production - regardless.

In 2010 the irrigated class was consistently above 300 bushels per acre yield.  But I noted that all but a few of the top irrigated producers were from Texas and Colorado - dry climate states.  The top 2010 irrigated producer managed 368 bushels per acre from a Virginia farm. 

Maybe it's time we start thinking about the input side of crop production in a contest form.  Maybe the contest should be about crop yield efficiency - the highest yield with the least amount of inputs - especially water.  Classes within the National Corm Yield Contest for limited irrigation would do this - it'd be a start, at least.  When water gets really limited, it'll all be about growing maximum bushels with minimum water anyway, so maybe we should be pushing these frontiers a bit more now.  And maybe I'm all wet, too.  Comments?