A new approach to fertilizing corn and using older equipment is helping a central Wisconsin farmer and custom operator succeed.
John Eron farms near the Portage-Wood County line west of Stevens Point. He tells the Midwest Farm Report splitting fertilizer applications is helping the crop, especially with nitrogen. He says, “With planting, we just went with four gallons an acre in-furrow with a 6-18-6, and then we came back and put a little bit down when we sprayed pre-emerge. The plan was after that, two split applications of nitrogen using Y drops, basically putting that fertilizer right at the base of that stalk.”
Eron says that worked well, but the plan was to put the last forty gallons per acre down in two twenty-gallon per acre applications, but instead did one pass at thirty gallons per acre. Eron targeted a 1-1 nitrogen use ratio but says, “We were just out in the field checking everything over, and it looks like we might have potential to see some of the corn pushing that 200-bushel mark.” He says if this all works out, it will yield much better numbers than the traditional 1-1 book value, with nitrogen use efficiency closer to point-7 depending on final yield.
Dry, then rain, & sudden growth
Eron says some of the fields he manages had a growth spurt that made the crop too tall to take the spray rig back out for the final nitrogen application. He says there was also a lot of drought stress before some fields could get that final nitrogen application. “I believe there was an opportunity to go beyond 200 bushels per acre if not for the flash drought, going from wet early to dry, making the roots shallow.” He’s glad the final application didn’t happen so there won’t be too much nitrogen in the ground at harvest time.
Older iron with upgrades works
Most of the fields Eron farms have a lot of clay and stones, making it challenging to get the fieldwork timed correctly. He says he’s glad to have the equipment to split the applications and get the most out of expensive inputs. That includes a 1993 John Deere 7200 24-row planter with upgrades. “We were just shy of 33-thousand population putting it in the ground, and the final stand is right around 31,800 to 32,200, so we’re very excited with that. It’s not too often we get a stand count that is within a thousand of what we planted it at.” He says having the large planter allows him to move quickly when he has to, and park it if there’s still some other fieldwork to do without getting far behind. With a wet spring and many late manure applications on custom client fields, he says that was very important to have that flexibility this year.
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