By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER Ohio Correspondent PUTNAM COUNTY, Ohio — Yielding 271.5 bushels to the acre, Golden Harvest product G05B91-3010 came out on top in an early season corn grain test on Lee Newcomber’s farm in Putnam County of northwest Ohio. The corn had a gross income of $926 to the acre. Moisture was 18.5 percent with 2 percent lodging. NK Brand NK0659-3120-EZR was second, yielding 271.1 bushels to the acre and a gross income of $920 an acre. In third place was Dairyland DS-9508RA with 266.1 bushels to the acre and a gross income of $897. The test was conducted by Farmers Independent Research of Seed Technologies (FIRST) with Matt Turner as site manager. The corn was planted on May 17 at a rate of 32,700 seeds to the acre. It was harvested on Oct. 31, with 32,000 plants to the acre. In a full-season test on the same farm, Dairyland DS-9412SSX ranked first, yielding 281.6 bushels to the acre and a gross income of $941 an acre. Moisture was 21.4 percent with 1 percent lodging. In second place was NK Brand NK1066-3120-EZR with a yield of 274.5 bushels to the acre and a gross income of $919 an acre. In third place was Rupp xrD12-49. It yielded 274 bushels to the acre with a gross income of $914 an acre. That field was seeded on May 17 at a rate of 32,700 seeds an acre. It was harvested Oct. 31 and had 31,500 plants an acre. The area had favorable weather conditions after planting, and that gave the corn a good start, Turner said. “The main factor why Lee’s corn did so well was that he had applied a healthy dose of chicken litter on the field prior to planting,” said Turner. “That bumped up the nutrients and gave it a good head start to help throughout the entire growing season. You combine the good weather with the nutrients in the soil, and it was a big yielding plot.” Roughly 40 miles down the road on Jerry McBride’s Hardin County farm, Becks 5140HR GC was on top in a FIRST early-season test. It yielded 231.7 bushels to the acre with a gross income of $794. Coming in second was LG Seeds, LG 5548STXRIB. It yielded 223.6 bushels to the acre and had a gross income of $764. Following in third place was NuTech/G2Gen product 5H-806 with 222.3 bushels to an acre and a gross income of $764. That corn was planted on May 16 with 33,800 seeds to the acre. It was harvested Oct. 31 and had 31,600 plants to the acre. The full-season test on the same farm had LG Seeds LG 5590VT2P in first place with a yield of 224.4 bushels to the acre and a gross income of $763 an acre. It had 19 percent moisture with 1 percent lodging. NK Brand NK0968-3111 was second. It yielded 217.8 bushels to the acre with a gross income of $743 an acre. Next, in third place, was Nu Tech X5NN-1212 with the same yield – 217.8 bushels to the acre, and a gross income of $737 an acre. That corn was planted May 16, 33,800 seeds to the acre. It was harvested Oct. 31 and had 29,600 plants an acre. The seed was planted no-till into good conditions, Turner said. Lack of June rain slowed the corn growth. “On Jerry’s property weather probably played more of a factor causing a yield drag,” Turner said. “They got quite a bit of rain after planting; that might have caused some emergence issues. After that, they went for a spell where they didn’t get any rain to get the corn rooted down and growing. Rain later on in the year to helped to bring it on.” |
