By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Beck’s Hybrids will make a strong effort to help customers achieve yields of 300 bushels an acre for corn and 100 bushels an acre for soybeans, an official with the Atlanta, Ind.-based company said last week.

“We’re trying to learn more about raising 300-bushel corn,” said Brent Minett, a sales consultant and agronomist for Beck’s. “We’d better get ahead of the curve and figure out how to do that.”

He and other company officials spoke Jan. 8 during the kickoff to Beck’s annual agronomy meetings. The free meeting was the first of more than 35 scheduled in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky between last week and Feb. 3. To register and to find a schedule of upcoming sessions, go to www.beckshybrids.com

In test plots at the company’s research facility in central Indiana, yields topping 300 bushels an acre for corn were achieved three times in 2008, Minett said. The top yield of 332.4 bushels an acre was reached on a corn-after-corn rotation with Headline fungicide, he said.

The second-highest yield of 320.8 bushels an acre was with a corn-after-beans rotation with Headline, he said. Both used Beck’s 6733 HXR corn seed.

The company is issuing a challenge to farmers to attempt to reach 300 bushels per acre of corn on their own farms, Minett said.
The rules and signup information are on the company website.
“We know what it took to reach 300 bushel corn on our test plots, but we want to help farmers figure out what it takes to do that in their fields,” he said.

Yields for soybeans on the test plots at the southern Practical Farm Research facility in Fort Branch, Ind., reached 94.2 bushels per acre last year, he said.

“The things we learn about raising high-yield soybeans are maybe things you can take and use on your farm,” Minett said.

While Beck’s continues to offer its replant guarantee on corn, Sure Gro soybeans, wheat and elite alfalfa, research shows that sometimes, replanting isn’t the best alternative, said Doug Clouser, Beck’s product placement specialist.

Under the company’s policy, if a Beck’s representative determines replanting is necessary, the company will provide seed and royalties for free. A study at the company’s Illinois Practical Farm Research facility found that replanting didn’t help improve yields, he said. Farmers also need to consider the extra costs for labor and equipment.

“We will continue to offer the free replant guarantee, but we don’t want to entice you to do something that will cost you more money when you go in and tear up the stand,” Clouser added.

The optimum nitrogen rates for corn-after-corn and corn-after-soybeans rotations climbed at all the company’s research facilities, Clouser said.

In 2008, a rate of 200 pounds per acre for corn-after-corn produced the best economic results, he said. For 2007, that rate was 170 pounds per acre.

For corn-after-soybeans, a rate of 167 pounds per acre produced the best results in 2008, compared to 133 pounds an acre in 2007.