While we edge closer to harvest Farm Week in Pictures shows off corn entering a new stage of life, last year’s crop leaving the farm, a random meeting, and some metal work. Enjoy!
Corny Stuff
The corn crop is coming along nicely. Here you can see the corn has dented. Dent is the next stage after the dough stage as we approach maturity at what is called black layer. After black layer we still must wait for the crop to dry down for harvest.
Here’s and ear of popcorn still on the plant. Pulling back the husk reveals the kernels inside. Popcorn won’t dent like regular corn. The hard outer layer is called the pericarp. The pericarp of popcorn is 3 to 4 times thicker than regular corn. This thickness is what allows enough pressure to build inside a kernel to make it pop.
While cutting down volunteer corn plants in a soybean field I cut some ears in half before cutting the whole plant down. I just thought it was neat to see a cross section of an ear growing in the husk. We cut down or spray for these rogue plants mostly in our soybean seed production fields to ensure we deliver a pure product.
This is the last of the 2012 crop being loaded out on to a truck. When gravity flow stops in a bin we go in with a sweep auger, shovels, and a broom to clean up what is left.
Conference Room
We ran into one of our seed salesmen while looking at one of our fields this week. He wanted to look at some of the corn he sold us that we have growing near our shop, and on the way we stopped and had an impromptu meeting with a neighbor. Parking in the middle of the road to talk to neighbors is pretty common.
Heavy Metal
I’ve been posting the progress of our dump truck tailgate build on facebook. Right now the new gate is clamped to the back of the truck while we tack weld some bracing on for strength. I think I’ll do a blog post on the build so you can see how much better this gate will be than the old worn out gate.
Green Hybrid
Half an hour from home where US 24 and I-65 cross you’ll find a few hundred acres of corn seed in production. Raising corn seed is a bit more intense that raising soybean seed like we do on our farm. Unlike soybean seed production hybrid corn requires planting male and female rows. You might notice the plants in the picture have no tassels. Tassels are the pollen-bearing part of the plant. After the tassels appear the female rows have theirs removed by hand or by machine leaving only the male rows to shed pollen. This process allows for correct cross of genetics between two plants to make a viable hybrid. Also notice that the male rows have now been removed from the field.
New technologies are on the horizon that could eliminate the intensive process of removing the tassels. Pioneer is developing a method involving a particular corn gene that will keep the seed parent rows from shedding any pollen. These three points taken directly from Pioneer’s site explain the advantages.
- Additional supply reliability through increasing yields by 15-20 percent in seed production fields by eliminating plant damage during the detasseling process
- Reduced environmental footprint of hybrid seed production and likelihood for physical injury by decreasing the amount of fuel, equipment and labor needed in production fields
- Improved seed purity and quality
Next week I’m only going to be on the farm for one day. I’ll be heading both to Columbus, Ohio and and Charlotte, North Carolina. My online efforts have garnered me a spot in Columbus for John Deere’s big product reveal event. Deere dealers saw all the cool new equipment last week. Members of the media, myself, and blogger Jennifer Campbell will be attending this week. I won’t make the second day of the show because I’m heading off to Charlotte for 2013 AgChat Conference. I’ll be working with other agvocates to lead a few sessions at the conference and I’m sure I’ll take in a few more sessions on my own so I can improve my social media presence. Should be a good time! See you next week!
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Thanks for the explanation of the corn hybrids. That was a lot more complex than I thought it was going to be.
Seed companies are constantly pushing the limits of seeds to see what we can get from them.
It’s been said the yield potential of a bag of seed drops the second you open it. Also been said if everything was perfect the potential of corn today could be 500bu/Acre. But you know……weather and stuff.
Of course.
How many bu/acre do you strive for? I know some guys try for contests and what not.
I like to see 180 or better coming across the yield monitor. We were running a 5 year average of 175 until a couple years ago. July/pollination in 2011 turned off really hot and no rain, and of course last year was terrible. I think we made just over 150 in 2011 and did 95 last year. This year is looking very good so far. We don’t currently use any irrigation here.
We have an official contest plot this year. We didn’t get crazy on it, but it looks like wind damage is really going to hurt our ear count out there. We’ll see what happens soon enough.
That’s cool to hear you have a contest plot. I’m curious to hear how it is going to be when it’s ready.
175 is pretty good. I’m not sure what the average in this area is. I don’t that many people who grow corn.. more soybeans, winter wheat and canola.
Season would be getting rather short, but probably not as much as I think in your Southern areas.
Yeah, in the Niagara region they have a longer growing season.
In Southern Ontario, their season is a bit longer too.
But definitely, Niagara has the longest growing season in Ontario.
A lot of the fruit is grown there because of it.
Good to know. Thanks, Iain.
Where 24 & 65 meet is Remington where a CaseIH dealer is
Hmmm. Never noticed. 😉