3 Cents Per Stalk

This farmer posted his calculation on Crop Talk: "I've been doing some scouting and thought I would put some math to the value of each corn plant. Here is my math. 33 ears per acre with a yield goal of 210. $5 for fall price and figuring a conservative 16X35 ear and 90,000 kernels/bu. What do you think?

Ears/Acre Bu/acre Bu/Acre Value/Plant
33000 210 $5.00 $0.03"

I thought that is a pretty good analysis. I am missing a lot of 3 cent stalks in my fields. How about you? Even in our sweet corn patch, we are missing plants. I figured up I am missing 100,000 critical corn plants in my field behind the house so you can see that adds up to real dollars in a hurry. April just wasn't a good month to plant in Ohio.

Now, flex earred hybrids will fill in some of that gap and Mother Nature has the final say on yield but you have to have plants to make yield. Farmers all over the midwest have seen their corn populations disasppear over April and May. It's June 4 and we don't need to lose any more and take good care of the ones we have.

Another farmer asked the dreaded question, "An irate neighbor called last night and said I killed his garden." Neighbor relations are a big deal and become tested we when apply crop protection chemicals to our fields.

We have to be very careful about spray drift and what is growing in our neighborhood when we apply certain chemicals. 2,-4-D and Banvel or dicamba chemically are great against resistant weeds for burndown but are horrible on sensitive plants. Those products "can get up and move" a long distance, even miles in the right conditions.

We can prevent these situations with a little planning and whole lot of good relations. Good relations can be hurt in one bad accident that isn't taken cared for properly. This is where education and training come in and I see Ohio State is looking at starting an agriculture stem shcool just north of us in Springfield, Ohio. I think that is a great idea.

Here is a link to a Poison Hemlock, growing faster than ever this year.

"The transit of Venus" is happening tomorrow, very rare!

It's a new week so back to the to do list.

Have a great week!

Ed