Understanding Hybrid and Variety Selection 

True or False……..Choosing hybrids or varieties to plant is all about identifying those that performed the best over the past year. 

        According to Jim Rouse, variety testing program manager at Iowa State University, the answer to this statement is false.  He asserts that variety selection is all about predicting which lines will do best in the future.  Of course he is absolutely correct.  The genetic yield potential of a hybrid or variety is constant.  To what degree it is expressed depends upon management and environment.  Since management is the same for any given farm, environmental factors such as soil type, moisture, temperature, pest pressure, and nutrient availability are the key variables impacting final yield.  Of these, the only one you know for sure is soil type.  This is why averaging multi-location yield data is the only reliable predictive tool we have for choosing next year’s hybrids or varieties.  When making selections based on single location strip trials, you are betting on last year’s conditions to repeat themselves this year.  There are overwhelming odds that it simply won’t happen. 

Transgenic Barrier Broken in Korea

        According to Doane’s Agricultural Report, 2 million bushels of  transgenic corn were purchased by South Korea for food use.  This is the first such purchase by the Koreans and it’s thought to be prompted by the high premium required to buy non-transgenic corn.  Further, there is some speculation that Japan may follow, which would be significant given their status as a major food importer. 

High risk period for nutrient runoff

        Early spring is always a high risk time period for spreading manure on crop fields.  Studies from farms cooperating in the state’s Discovery Farms Program indicate that different types of manure applied to snow covered and/or frozen soils both before and during conditions of snow melt or rain on snow can result in significantly higher nutrient losses than if manure was not applied.  Snow melts can occur rapidly and water moves quickly off fields.  Manure applied to snow covered fields has little chance of reaching the soil surface before nutrients are washed away with the melting snow.  As a result, a substantial amount of nutrient runoff occurs when the ground is frozen (or thawing).  One positive factor in the current conditions is that there is not a lot of frost in the ground.  Even as snow melts away and moisture changes to the liquid form, saturated soils are also are vulnerable to nutrient runoff as water looks to move off rather than into the saturated ground.  Bottom line: use some common sense when hauling manure out to fields over the next several weeks. 

Watch for low soybean seed germination in 2008 

        Seed quality is rarely a widespread issue in soybean; however, Shawn Conley, UW Extension Soybean Agronomist, reports that it will pay for growers to check the percent germination of each seed lot that they purchase in 2008 and adjust seeding rates accordingly.  In a normal year most soybean seed is sold at 92% germination or greater.  In 2008, growers may find several varieties sold at 85% germination and some may be marketed as low as 80% germination.  The lowered germination percentage for this year’s seed was caused by adverse environmental conditions during the soybean seed-fill period in 2007.  These conditions caused the soybean seed coat to be thinner than normal, thus adversely impacting seed quality.  As the seed was mechanically handled during the harvest, transportation, cleaning, and bagging processes, damage was more easily inflicted on the seed.  Conley also warns that subsequent mechanical handling of the seed, such as treating with a fungicide, may further lower the germination. 

Results from this year’s PEPS program

        PEPS is a long-standing program for corn and soybean growers to enter and evaluate the economic health of their crop enterprises.  Although yield is a factor, participants are ranked based on return per acre. Reams of data are generated from PEPS and even more when years are combined.  It’s always interesting to look back through the years to see where input costs have changed or not changed.   For example, in 1992 the average seed cost per acre for all entries in the cash corn division was $24 per acre.  That value has consistently risen to the current average of $51 per acre, up $7 per acre from 2006.  Conversely, chemical costs have risen only slightly from $22 to $27 per acre during that same time.  Soybean seed costs have increased as well from $21 per acre in 1992 to $40 per acre in 2007; however, soybean chemical costs have dropped dramatically from $24 to $16 per acre (albeit they were up $3 per acre from 2006).   Land and fertilizer costs are now the highest single inputs on a per acre basis. 

        What were the top yields in the PEPS program?  In the cash corn division, the top yield was recorded from a Grant County field at 250 bushels per acre (a $486 per acre return!).  In the Dairy/Livestock corn division, a Sauk County grower harvested 270 bushels per acre for a return of $572 per acre.  The highest soybean yield in the program was 67 bushels per acre from a producer in Buffalo County (a return of $458 per acre). 

        If you have an interest in participating in the PEPS program in 2008 (the cost is minimal), contact our office for more details.  There are categories for cash corn, dairy and livestock corn, corn silage, and soybeans.