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NC Iowa | Yes 56 pounds is one bushel but the question is does test weight matter on yield. I believe it does matter. It is very difficult for me to explain my view.
How do you improve yield? You need more pounds of corn per acre.
How do you get more pounds per acre? you either need more kernels per acre or if you get each kernel to weigh more. Can we agree that what I just said is true?
Let look at this a little backwards.
Lets say the date is Sept. 5th in northern Iowa. The corn is half milk line. For all intensive purposes an acre of corn now has a set number of ears. Each ear has a set number of rows around. The length of the rows is set. So in theory the number of kernels per acre is set. Now if a disease(Tare Spot) moves in on Sept 5th and damages the corn plants to a point were the plant stops filling the remainder of each kernel(half milk line). When you harvest this corn crop your yield much lower than if the disease had never moved in. Can we agree this paragraph is true?
So why is the yield down in this case. You harvested the same number of kernels. Each kernel weighs less because the corn plant stopped packing sugar into the kernels. The kernels will finish maturing but they will not weigh as much as they could have if the Tare Spot didn't damage the plant. This corn will have poor test weight because the kernels are lite weight( they are not tightly packed with starches).
Now if you would have gone out and sprayed the correct fungicide before the Tare Spot moved in and prevented the disease from affecting the corn plant. The corn plant would have finished filling each kernel with all the sugars it could possible pack into each kernel then the test weight would be much higher bringing the yield up. | |
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National map of ECO/SCO
