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| You are right in that you need to break up the old stalks as much as possible. We use to plow 2nd year corn but the last few years we disc it then run a DMI disc ripper over the staks. Also, applying N in the fall will help breakdown the old stalks. We normally put down all our plowdown ahead of the discing, disc rip then apply AA. Last fall we put the AA on after discing & before running the disc ripper, just make sure you wait at least a week after applying the AA before ripping to give the N plenty of time to become attached to the soils.
Usually they say you will lose about 10bpa on 2nd year corn but we have rarely seen that kind of drop. In fact, last year our 2nd year corn was our best corn by over 20bpa even though 2005 was a dry year for us.
On fertilizer we actually apply less fertilizer for the 2nd year corn than we do for corn going into bean stubble. However, we do up our N rates by about 40#ac to make up for the lack of N that would have been available if following soybeans. | |
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