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Iowa | Also in Ia. Costs a lot more than you think when you add in extra harvesting, labor, time (if you are pretty near maxed out already--not much of a factor if you have extra time) hauling, storing what is not fwd sold, fall tillage, RW seed, etc, etc.
Lots of "little" things
more money to borrow for inputs,cornhead, tillage imps,trucks wear out faster, LOTS more miles on trucks, bin wear and tear (we filled 5 dryer bins several times each, then hauled the dry corn to town-one we filled 5 times) can't wait for all of it to dry in field when you have twice as much corn as you are used to having, setting augers at midnight sucks--just lots of things to gear up for with corn on corn) That being said, it can still make more $$ in lots of situations
Another angle: This year I planted treated seed,foliar fed my beans twice, put insectcide in both times, sprayed for ahids earlier than most, and added a fungicide with the aphid spray. Extra cost about $35. 2 checks showed extra yield at 8 bu and 10 bu. 63 bu farm ave. Best farm ave before was 55 several years back.
Was 85% corn last year. Lowering to 65% this year, and plan on managing beans similarly again.
Costs me $200 more/A to grow c/c vs sb.
I think corn is less risky, when you factor in aphids, possible shortages of fungicide, rust, etc. Plant RW hybrids with good disease tolerance, and get the ground pretty black for a good corn-on-corn seedbed and the yield penalty vs rotation is minimal.
Still learning--all I really know is that we can't just plant beans and keep them clean--that is not enough. We need to manage them better. | |
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