SUBLETTE, Ill. — Randy Faber watches all the signs carefully and plans accordingly to get his crop into the ground at a certain time each season.
This year, he settled on April 22, a bit earlier than usual – but all the conditions, including soil moisture levels, appeared ripe and ready to go. While he was planting earlier than others around him, Mother Nature confirmed a week later that he made the right choice: By April 29, much of the northern Illinois area was hit with a significant cold front.
"He planted ahead of that cold snap in northern Illinois as if he knew it was coming," said Jason Beyers, project manager for Faber’s test plot for the Illinois-based Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies (FIRST) program.
"A lot of folks around him saw their corn severely impacted because of that cold snap, so if he had planted even a few days later, his numbers wouldn’t have been as good as they were, and they were good considering the amount of rain received overall this spring."
He described Faber’s ground as a "high fertility field" Faber tracks closely: "He usually uses high levels of nitrogen, potassium, and manure."
Faber’s Muscatine/St. Charles silty clay loam soil drains well, is non-irrigated and tilled in the fall; he usually grows corn in consecutive seasons.
In Faber’s ultra-early-season test, DEKALB variety DCK54-38RIB GC finished in the top spot with a yield total of 233.5 bushels per acre and a gross income return of $839 per acre. Wyffels’ W2308RIB was second with 231.1 bushels and an income return of $832, and Dairyland’s DS9203 came in third at 230.7 bushels and a return of $813 per acre.
In the early-season test, the top spot went to Cornelius’ C574SS at 276 bushels per acre with an income return of $945 per acre. Great Lakes’ 5755STXRIB was second with 275.1 bushels and a gross income of $943, and YIELDirect’s 5L33-RIB was third with 270.3 bushels and an income of $931.
The average yield for the early-season test was 243.1 bushels per acre.
In the full-season test, NuTech’s 5N-410 took the top spot with a yield of 269.2 bushels per acre and an income return of $916 per acre. Cornelius’ C621SS was second at 267.1 bushels, with an income return of $907 per acre.
Coming in third was Great Lakes’ 6185STXRIB, with 265.2 bushels per acre and an income of $893. The average yield for the full-season plot was 247.2 bushels per acre.
