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Research aim: Corn yields of 300+ bushels

By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Corn yields of 300 or more bushels an acre may take a few decades to reach, but Iowa State University professor and extension corn agronomist Dr. Roger Elmore is hopeful scientists and farmers can get there sooner.

“There’s no more potential I see than that spike coming through the ground,” he described of young, green corn shoots this time of year. “Unless you have a handful of kernels … but (the shoot is) a lot prettier.”

Elmore shared his speculations about 300-bushel corn at last week’s Corn Utilization and Technology Conference in Kansas City. Sponsored by the National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA), this is the 10th anniversary of the biennial conference, which began in 1998 as a partnership with the Corn Refiners Assoc. It was the same year, according to ISU’s Patrick Schnable, that Congress allocated funds for a corn genome program.

Since then, there’ve been various groups with which the NCGA has partnered to stage the conference, but this is the first year it has taken over entirely. It’s held only every two years, said Dr. Richard Glass, vice president of research and business development, because research doesn’t take “quantum leaps” to demand annual presentations.

“What I see is we’re trying to look out for our future,” said NCGA CEO Rick Tolman, on the conference’s purpose, at which scientists and educators presented research related to new or improved technologies and uses of corn.

He said corn growers and processors need to be ahead of the curve when it comes to higher-value use for their crop. When asked how he would justify the need for more non-food uses of corn to “food versus fuel” critics, he said the amount of corn allocated for human consumption in the United States is less than 10 percent of the total grown and he sees corn as livestock feed declining, being replaced by nutrient-rich distillers grains and less expensive feedstuffs.

“Ultimately, ethanol will become a commodity like corn is, and move down in price,” Tolman said, adding that biofuel production will move beyond corn, such as using cellulosic materials instead (which were also featured at this conference).

He also said farmers want to take advantage of a good market. If non-food uses exhibit higher demand and pay more, growers can better recoup their investment from those buyers.
“You have land (as a farmer); you have management skills; you have equipment,” Tolman said. “You grow what the market tells you to grow.

“If tomorrow the market told you to go grow marijuana,” Tolman added, for emphasis “and it was legal … you grow that.”

He pointed to wheat growers harvesting the highest amount of wheat they have in 10 years because of record prices. Cotton prices have been depressed, and he said some of that land is going to more profitable corn and soybeans. He explained this is all of interest to NCGA members, since they don’t grow exclusively corn.
This does not mean farmers can get away with growing less corn; in fact, Elmore’s session was indicative of a general feeling of anticipation that by increasing yield productivity, corn growers can supply everybody’s needs: markets for distillers grains, ethanol, feedstocks, food and perhaps fibers and plastics.

Tolman said each year the U.S. is losing 2.2 million acres of rural land to urbanization, but the flip side is that biotechnology has made it possible to grow corn “to some degree” in every state – and thrive in some previously-unlikely places such as Minnesota and North Dakota. The owner of a flex-fuel vehicle, Tolman said he gets many questions from fellow drivers at gas stations and other public places where they ask about biofuel. Some people are fascinated by biofuel production; others are angry over corn being used as fuel; still others are angry with Big Oil for prices at the pump and tell Tolman they’d rather “pay a farmer than some oil sheik.”

Glass, who lives in the Northeast, said he gets fewer questions, as most residents he knows are not growers and don’t pay much attention to farming. But when asked, he points out the corn being used for ethanol is not the sweet corn people see for sale in the grocery – they are two different kinds.

Elmore said general thought is that the biological limit of corn yield is around 400 bu./acre, but he thinks it’s closer to 350 “unless we do something really big” to push it even higher.

For the past 30 years, average yield increase has stayed flat at 1.87 bu./acre annually, despite advances in genetics and growing methods. To reach 300 by 2030, that rate won’t work – Elmore said it’ll have to jump to 6.29 bu./acre per year. He said researchers need something that will kick-start yield increases such as hybridization did for growers in the 1930s – which nearly doubled production within one decade.

Yield factors that can be controlled to varying extents are farming practices, nutrients, weeds, diseases, soil conditioning and even wind. Elmore explained researchers still need to examine residue management and soil systems – such as compaction – to see how manipulating them may affect plant yield.

Despite researchers’ mingled hope and worry, Tolman said company representatives he’s spoken with at Monsanto and Pioneer are confident they’ll see 300-bushel corn within 22 years.
“Some of the things they have in the pipeline …” he trailed off, letting anticipation of the research carry the thought.

6/12/2008