By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent WANATAH, Ind. — On a picture perfect late summer day, some 350 farmers, agribusiness professionals and researchers gathered for a tour of 673 acres at Pinney-Purdue University Agricultural Center to learn about the latest research there.
The daylong tour Aug. 25 gave visitors an up-close look at the latest scientific research on row spacing and seeding rates for corn, soybean management, controlling volunteer corn, combating the Western bean cutworm (WBC), corn and soybean disease issues, nitrogen accumulation in corn and the use of cover crops to improve soil.
Walt Sell, an agricultural extension specialist for Lake County, said the turnout was the largest in the history of the annual Field Days tour.
“We had between 250 and 300 people last year, and while we haven’t counted the numbers yet for this year, it looks like we have between 300 and 350 people this year,” he said.
“I really think most of them are coming to see if the research being done by Purdue verifies what they’re seeing in their field. It’s also an opportunity for specialists at Purdue to share the results of their research.”
That’s precisely why Ed Gemberling was taking the tour. A farmer near La Porte, Gemberling said he wanted to get the latest information from Purdue.
“I think it reinforces what I already know,” said Gemberling, who farms 1,300 acres of corn and soybeans. “I’ve been in the business for 10 years and there’s no doubt there is useful information here.”
For Frank Jones of Fort Wayne, a sales representative for Dairyland Seeds (which is owned by Dow AgroSciences), the tour was a chance to meet with farmers and find what researchers have discovered. “I think something like this reinforces what I know,” said Jones. “I think this confirms things for me that I can use when I’m meeting one-on-one with farmers.”
The Center has been a part of the Purdue system since 1919, when William E. Pinney and his daughter, Myra F.P. Clark, donated their farmland to the university. The land at Pinney-Purdue has been divided among 22 researchers who are involved in 42 separate studies for traditional row crops such as corn and soybeans to varieties like canola, oats and sorghum, to woodland and timber management to vegetable trials.
In addition to Purdue Agriculture, also involved in research at Pinney-Purdue are scientists from the agronomy, botany, entomology, horticulture and biological engineering departments. While some of the research is exotic, much of it involves practical, everyday studies on corn and soybean planting.
One stop on the tour, of seven, was a cornfield set up by Bob Nielsen. His study looked at what should be the optimal spacing between corn rows to get the best yield.
“Look, we’ve been planting corn for a long time, so there’s not a whole lot that’s new,” said Nielsen. “We build this factory powered by sunlight every year. And since it’s powered by sunlight, we need to capture as much of it as we can.
“We only have one shot it, too. So we have to make the right decisions.”
In the end, he said it comes down to whether rows should be 24 or 30 inches apart and whether there should be 30,000 or 35,000 seeds planted per acre.
“We don’t know why, but farmers today plant 5,000 to 10,000 more seeds per acre today than they did 20 years ago,” said Nielsen.
Yields have been going up in that time, but Nielsen said his research is looking for a tipping point where that may start to fall off. In this part of northern Indiana, the average is about 30,000 seeds per acre.
The importance of row width, said Nielsen, is to allow as much sunlight as possible into the field in order to produce as many kernels as possible on each ear of corn. If the rows are too close together, sunlight is diminished and the ears don’t produce as much.
In another kind of research on corn, Kiersten Wise explained what farmers need to look for in case their fields are infested with gray leaf spot. It is a disease that affects the leaves of the corn plant, ultimately inhibiting their ability to conduct photosynthesis. If an infestation is severe enough, it can kill the entire plant.
Wise said her research has shown even if gray leaf spot is found late in the growing season, application of fungicides are effective and can preserve yields.
Entomologist John Obermeyer was conducting his own research on corn, looking at problems created by the WBC. Obermeyer said there is evidence the pest is moving further east, but he said it also looks as if some of the populations are making northern Indiana a permanent home.
The small brown moths that lay their eggs on the plant are easily killed, said Obermeyer, but eliminating them by spraying works only if it’s done before they lay their eggs. Eggs appear as bumps on the leaves and once they hatch, the tiny caterpillars move to the silks of corn and burrow inside. That, he said, is where the real damage can take place.
Following the morning tours and a pork chop dinner, Purdue ag economist Chris Hurt presented a brief economic outlook for the 2010 harvest and the 2011 spring planting season.
He said soybean growers in Indiana could be in a position to reap higher prices this fall because of drought in Russia and Ukraine that has severely reduced yields. In addition, wheat producers will gain for the same reason; harvests are expected to be down 16 percent in Canada, 22 percent in Russia and 32 percent in Kazakhstan.
“For the United States, it is an opportunity to export much more wheat,” said Hurt.
Even with expected high yields this year in U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat, Hurt said world stocks are expected to remain tight, which should keep prices relatively high. The USDA average farm price of corn is $3.80 a bushel and $3.95 a bushel on the futures market. In northern Indiana, Hurt said the average farm price of corn is expected to be around $4.10 a bushel.
For the spring planting season, he said the cost of planting corn is expected to climb 6 percent, soybeans 2 percent and wheat 9 percent, because of expected increases in seed and fertilizer costs.
“Right now, the outlook for this year remains pretty positive,” said Hurt. “We are in a little more stable period for now.” |
