Corn School: Want to Grow 500-Bushel Corn? Stop The Insanity

If farmers want to supersize their corn yields, they have to challenge conventional thinking and become students of the crop.
That was the main message National Corn Growers Association yield contest champion Randy Dowdy shared with hundreds of farmers at the 2016 SouthWest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown, Ontario earlier this week.

[@mustlovedogs272]

If I remember correctly he got the 500 bushels on a field using subsurface drip irrigation and has said before that the cost to produce the 500 bushels on that particular field far exceeded the income. He was simply trying to set the record. Now, no doubt, this guy is very, very good at farming. I have no doubt that he makes more profit per acre per year than most.

[@rochrich1223]

You can hear the command of a great many factors going into his decision making. An entire major AG school doing research, changing one factor at a time, couldn't start to study all those factors in a year. Maybe scientific method isn't the right approach. I'd like to see an AG Art department where they grow things to be judged by profitability, reproducibility and simplicity.

[@tf7274]

I believe this is achieved with 2 crops in a calendar year on the same field....so a 240bu February to June and 260 from June to October...

[@farmermatt629]

I don't really want to grow 500 bushel corn unless I can do it on my current inputs lol ... corn it 3.50 and headed south . Sure we can do it is it profitable not only now but in the long run?

[@Dollapfin]

farmermatt629 most profitable thing you can do is plant a cover crop and go no till. The cover crop mix you use will pay for itself in nutrients recovered. The best one for your buck is a mix of a grass (they’re all cheap) two legumes (clover ~balansa is a must but it’s a water hog~ ~crimson is great~ a type of vining legume like vetch or peas, a broadleaf like sunflower, and a brassica of your choice. This stores massive amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen above and below the ground. They improve soil health and structure. Increase water absorption, and reduce need for inputs like pesticides herbicides and as I said fertilizers. They make micronutrients more available too.

[@jimkraus3241]

my guys are organic and getting 200 bu/acre just using BioGrow365, nothing else at $12.00/bu. Who's making more money? [e-mail]

[@Dollapfin]

Jim Kraus what? $12 a bushel? Please say again that sounds to me like 3x the selling price. Or is that the organic selling price.

[@jimkraus3241]

Matthew Niedbala organic selling price.

[@Dollapfin]

Jim Kraus thank you and hell yes that’s more profitable. I actually am going to get a degree at psu for agronomy and maybe horticulture. I’m interested in getting the most product value for the least cost and Organic seems considerably cheaper for the same value. I will look into biodigester effluent legume cover crops and possibly even urine for fertilizers. I believe if done correctly no till with a cover will outyield conventional on average with much less inputs.

[@Bledi838]

This man has a Scientists brain.....This is the right approach how each Farming expert needs to approach the problem of Yield Maximization....

[@donready119]

Wow.

[@peterlaidlaw8655]

I wonder how it tastes?

[@treeliRootz]

Taste like it sounds

[@Beyonder8335]

It’s not corn that you would eat, feed corn so it’s most likely used for animal feed or ethanol

[@peterlaidlaw8655]

@@Beyonder8335 Actually I get that. Some years ago I worked in the chicken industry and they fed the laying hens vitaminized processes newsprint. Just seems somehow wrong - against nature for economy?

[@WadcaWymiaru]

This is possible to jump over limit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pmG8f3mkbqmfpcU - biochar power (beans and two farmers) kzbin.info/www/bejne/joLbpZuXl8qShbc - 2fold (old image from USA past) kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3TdpGahfp2FoZY - bamboo biochar (hill+mycorrhiza) with biochar...

[@Dollapfin]

500 BUSHEL?!

[@grahamsandry9289]

We also need to improve how we improve food production AND go organic at the same time.

[@marvinscholten8643]

Have you checked out the Conklin Agrovantage system

[@clarkbarre9520]

Organic is low yield. Organic production would reduce the overall amount of food.

[@treeliRootz]

Look at this Man is blinking a lot while describing …

[@treeliRootz]

Body langue

[@linmal2242]

Corn! What about wheat? Do you not grow wheat in America, or is corn the go, full stop? A lot of cornflakes, I guess!

[@bradk1295]

Lots and lots of corn! But wheat too, depending on what part of the country you’re farming in. We grow both.

[@rosalinapereira6608]

P