Ag Bites — Corn Stand Evaluation — June 3, 2013
In this edition of Peterson Farms Seed’s Ag Bites video series, Adam Spelhaug evaluates corn stands by examining plant spacing, uniformity, and emergence rates.
A big part of Peterson Farms Seed’s mission is to provide unparalleled agronomic support to growers, resulting in higher yields. The Ag Bites video series provides in-field reports and practical agronomic tips to inform and educate our customers in that effort.
If you have any questions about conducting a corn stand evaluation in your own fields, feel free to call the office at (701) 282-7476. See full video transcription below.
“Today at Peterson Farms Seed, we’re going to be doing a stand evaluation. This is a great time of year to do this after the corn is up, and most of the beans are in the ground. Now that it is June third, you will want to take a look at your corn and evaluating how good of a planting job you did.
What you will want to do, is find a couple different spots that are representative of your planter. On a 30” row, 17.5’ is 1/1000 of an acre. In a 22” row, 22’9” is 1/1000. Take those measurements, measure off your stand and see what your population was versus your intended population. You want to be within 5% or 1500 plants – which ever one is less and that’s a good way to show that you have your stand where you want it.
Another thing to look at is stand uniformity. You want to have all your plants within two inches of ideal population. On a 30-inch row, that’s about 6.5”. In a 22-inch row it’s about 8”. So, look at your plants, measure the distances apart, and make sure you don’t have any doubles, skips, or any gaps.
Then the last thing to look at is emergence timing. You want to have most, or all your plants come up the same day. If a plant gets behind by one or two collars a lot of times that’ll lead to reduced yield growth. So, take a look at uniformity, plant spacing, and emergence rates and that’ll get you a good step on how well you’re planting job did this is spring.”
