Earlier this year, I was awarded the ITLUS/Rosenbohm internship and given the opportunity to experience farming in the Midwest first hand.
While the plan was to be here for the planting season, it took some time to get the visa issues sorted out and I only arrived in early August. By then, maize had finished flowering and moved well into grain-fill. These same crops are now well turned and maize harvest is expected to begin by the middle of this month.
While grain maize is new to me, it still looks impressive. And my host, Kevin Rosenbohm, agrees that crops look good and appear to have good potential.
“But it’s not in the bin until after it is harvested,” Kevin reminded me.
I have been heavily involved in the farm activities since I arrived with combine maintenance and grain haulage being among the bigger tasks. But I was also tasked with reporting on the basic husbandry and techniques used in planting and the early husbandry of maize and soya beans. This is included in this report.
Upkeep
In springtime, the work starts once the snow and frost thaws, normally in March. Recurring early spring jobs generally involve repairs to the terraces and levees. Terraces are used to help slow surface water flow to minimise soil erosion while levees are constructed to help prevent rivers from spilling on to land.
Land drainage also tends to be a job for spring and this generally involves pipe laying. In one section, Kevin is contemplating laying plastic pipes to help with spring drainage but to install them in a way that they could subsequently be used as a means of underground irrigation. The equipment to do all of the work is owned by the farm.
The rotation on most Midwest farms is corn followed by soya beans followed by corn. This has been a very traditional rotation in this region.
Corn planting
As an Irish farmer’s son, one of the first things I had to reconcile was that corn here means maize and not a small grained cereal as it does in Ireland. So this is what happens during the planting and establishment phases for maize.
When possible, P and K are spread in early winter for the spring-sown crops. A two-compartment spreader is used with straight P or K in each. The fertiliser is broadcasted on the land with precision rates set by GPS. The rates applied are based on soil test results from grid sampling, with soil testing repeated every four years.
The average application rate tends to be 40 to 80 pounds of potash per acre (37-75 kgK/ha). The phosphate is spread at a rate of 30-60 pounds/ac (15-30 kgP/ha). These are high-nutrient-index fields and so only need a maintenance level of nutrients. The bean stalks and corn stalks are all chopped back into the soil to help organic matter level and also help maintain soil potash and phosphate levels.
Fertiliser is only applied every second year (for the corn), as this is a relatively big task. The nitrogen fertiliser is incorporated into the ground in rows using GPS at an offset angle of seven degrees from the rows the seeds will be planted in. So the planter actually crosses each row of fertiliser to help ensure that the nitrogen does not burn the roots of the crop.
From late February, anhydrous nitrogen can be applied (incorporated) to the land destined for corn. This is a gaseous form of 82% nitrogen. It is applied at a rate of 130 to 180 pounds per acre (146-200 kgN/ha).
Corn is sown with a precision drill from early April onwards, normally using a 30in row width and a seeding rate of 28,000-30,000 seeds/acre. And the hope is that establishment will be virtually 100%, which is helped by the precision planting. Different row widths are being experimented with on the farm using different genetics.
Atrazine is still used here and it is sprayed on the crop as a pre-emergence herbicide. If weeds come through this herbicide, Roundup can be applied in late June or early July as most of the corn is Roundup Ready and so can be sprayed with this herbicide.
Expected yield this year is 175 bushels/ac or about 4.5 t/ac.
Soya beans
Being a legume, the soya bean crop receives no applied nitrogen. But neither does it receive any P or K, the idea being that surplus nutrients applied to the preceding corn crop should be adequate for the beans. And they estimate that the beans will leave about 30 pounds of nitrogen/ac (34 kgN/ha) for the following corn crop.
The ground is burnt off before planting using Roundup. Planting usually takes place from early May and seeds are planted in 15-inch rows. The seeding rate is usually 165,000 seeds per acre to establish around 130,000 plants per acre.
The soya beans on this farm are GM types. Two traits can be used in the beans. One provides glyphosate resistance, enabling Roundup to be used to clean up weeds in these crops during the growing season. However, it appears that Roundup Ready is now seen as being less effective compared to a new product called Liberty and Roundup is being used less and less in beans. The Liberty trait works in the same way as glyphosate resistance, only that it allows a different herbicide to be used – glufosinate, or Basta as it was known in Ireland when it was on the market. Most of the beans grown on Kevin’s farm are Liberty resistant.
Prior to planting, a residual herbicide mix is used to help control broadleaved and grass weeds. The residual element helps it last longer in the soil. One of the products used is called Authority First, which contains sulfentrazone (62.1%) and cloransulam-methyl (7.9%). This is used in conjunction with Roundup to burn off the vegetation on the surface prior to planting and provide residual control.
Depending on the field and the variety, crops are sprayed with either Roundup or Liberty about 30 days post planting to help clean up any surviving weeds in the crop. There will also be an insecticide applied to control bean leaf beetle with this herbicide spray.
This is followed 60 - 80 days post planting with a fungicide, if required, for frog-eye leaf spot. An insecticide is added again also to control pod worms. This is applied using crop dusters, which are planes fitted with spraying equipment to spray the crops.
On Kevin’s farm the majority of the soya beans are grown to produce seed for the following season. The fungicide helps to improve seed quality, even if there aren’t disease problems in the field.
Fertiliser P and K are applied only once in two years to service two different crops in a high soil fertility index scenario.The Liberty GM herbicide resistance trait is being increasingly used to help combat weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate.Atrazine is still used to provide the basis for weed control in maize crops.Maintenance of terraces and levees is an annual spring task on most farms.
Earlier this year, I was awarded the ITLUS/Rosenbohm internship and given the opportunity to experience farming in the Midwest first hand.
While the plan was to be here for the planting season, it took some time to get the visa issues sorted out and I only arrived in early August. By then, maize had finished flowering and moved well into grain-fill. These same crops are now well turned and maize harvest is expected to begin by the middle of this month.
While grain maize is new to me, it still looks impressive. And my host, Kevin Rosenbohm, agrees that crops look good and appear to have good potential.
“But it’s not in the bin until after it is harvested,” Kevin reminded me.
I have been heavily involved in the farm activities since I arrived with combine maintenance and grain haulage being among the bigger tasks. But I was also tasked with reporting on the basic husbandry and techniques used in planting and the early husbandry of maize and soya beans. This is included in this report.
Upkeep
In springtime, the work starts once the snow and frost thaws, normally in March. Recurring early spring jobs generally involve repairs to the terraces and levees. Terraces are used to help slow surface water flow to minimise soil erosion while levees are constructed to help prevent rivers from spilling on to land.
Land drainage also tends to be a job for spring and this generally involves pipe laying. In one section, Kevin is contemplating laying plastic pipes to help with spring drainage but to install them in a way that they could subsequently be used as a means of underground irrigation. The equipment to do all of the work is owned by the farm.
The rotation on most Midwest farms is corn followed by soya beans followed by corn. This has been a very traditional rotation in this region.
Corn planting
As an Irish farmer’s son, one of the first things I had to reconcile was that corn here means maize and not a small grained cereal as it does in Ireland. So this is what happens during the planting and establishment phases for maize.
When possible, P and K are spread in early winter for the spring-sown crops. A two-compartment spreader is used with straight P or K in each. The fertiliser is broadcasted on the land with precision rates set by GPS. The rates applied are based on soil test results from grid sampling, with soil testing repeated every four years.
The average application rate tends to be 40 to 80 pounds of potash per acre (37-75 kgK/ha). The phosphate is spread at a rate of 30-60 pounds/ac (15-30 kgP/ha). These are high-nutrient-index fields and so only need a maintenance level of nutrients. The bean stalks and corn stalks are all chopped back into the soil to help organic matter level and also help maintain soil potash and phosphate levels.
Fertiliser is only applied every second year (for the corn), as this is a relatively big task. The nitrogen fertiliser is incorporated into the ground in rows using GPS at an offset angle of seven degrees from the rows the seeds will be planted in. So the planter actually crosses each row of fertiliser to help ensure that the nitrogen does not burn the roots of the crop.
From late February, anhydrous nitrogen can be applied (incorporated) to the land destined for corn. This is a gaseous form of 82% nitrogen. It is applied at a rate of 130 to 180 pounds per acre (146-200 kgN/ha).
Corn is sown with a precision drill from early April onwards, normally using a 30in row width and a seeding rate of 28,000-30,000 seeds/acre. And the hope is that establishment will be virtually 100%, which is helped by the precision planting. Different row widths are being experimented with on the farm using different genetics.
Atrazine is still used here and it is sprayed on the crop as a pre-emergence herbicide. If weeds come through this herbicide, Roundup can be applied in late June or early July as most of the corn is Roundup Ready and so can be sprayed with this herbicide.
Expected yield this year is 175 bushels/ac or about 4.5 t/ac.
Soya beans
Being a legume, the soya bean crop receives no applied nitrogen. But neither does it receive any P or K, the idea being that surplus nutrients applied to the preceding corn crop should be adequate for the beans. And they estimate that the beans will leave about 30 pounds of nitrogen/ac (34 kgN/ha) for the following corn crop.
The ground is burnt off before planting using Roundup. Planting usually takes place from early May and seeds are planted in 15-inch rows. The seeding rate is usually 165,000 seeds per acre to establish around 130,000 plants per acre.
The soya beans on this farm are GM types. Two traits can be used in the beans. One provides glyphosate resistance, enabling Roundup to be used to clean up weeds in these crops during the growing season. However, it appears that Roundup Ready is now seen as being less effective compared to a new product called Liberty and Roundup is being used less and less in beans. The Liberty trait works in the same way as glyphosate resistance, only that it allows a different herbicide to be used – glufosinate, or Basta as it was known in Ireland when it was on the market. Most of the beans grown on Kevin’s farm are Liberty resistant.
Prior to planting, a residual herbicide mix is used to help control broadleaved and grass weeds. The residual element helps it last longer in the soil. One of the products used is called Authority First, which contains sulfentrazone (62.1%) and cloransulam-methyl (7.9%). This is used in conjunction with Roundup to burn off the vegetation on the surface prior to planting and provide residual control.
Depending on the field and the variety, crops are sprayed with either Roundup or Liberty about 30 days post planting to help clean up any surviving weeds in the crop. There will also be an insecticide applied to control bean leaf beetle with this herbicide spray.
This is followed 60 - 80 days post planting with a fungicide, if required, for frog-eye leaf spot. An insecticide is added again also to control pod worms. This is applied using crop dusters, which are planes fitted with spraying equipment to spray the crops.
On Kevin’s farm the majority of the soya beans are grown to produce seed for the following season. The fungicide helps to improve seed quality, even if there aren’t disease problems in the field.
Fertiliser P and K are applied only once in two years to service two different crops in a high soil fertility index scenario.The Liberty GM herbicide resistance trait is being increasingly used to help combat weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate.Atrazine is still used to provide the basis for weed control in maize crops.Maintenance of terraces and levees is an annual spring task on most farms. 
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