Late Planted Corn May Yield Better than Expected

Late Planted Corn May Yield Better than Expectedoct

In Northern Indiana, a lot of the corn did not get planted until late May or early June. It also pollinated during a very cloudy period in July. Thus, the yield expectations were not high. But Dan Ritter, with Brodbeck Seeds, says late season rain which did not help the early planted corn may have helped with grain fill on the late planted crops, “Where we had late rains, we were able to add some test weight and depth and kernel size.  So where we will likely see some increased yields will be from increased kernel size.” He added, in some early yield checks, the kernel count was down, but kernel size and test weights were higher. That may produce yields that are higher than expectations on some of the later planted crops.

Ritter says evaluating hybrids will be difficult this year because the stress  came at different times in different parts of the state, “That is why we suggest you plant a hybrid portfolio with 4 or 5 different hybrids to spread out your risk.” With the different kinds of weather around different parts of the state this year, the same hybrid may have performed differently depending on when the stress came.

He stresses that, when producers are evaluating seed selection for 2017, they take performance over several years into account, “Just don’t go with the hot rocket this year, but look at performance over several years because next year may be a completely different kind of year.”

Recommended Posts

Loading...