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East Central Ia | Make sure to take into account the variety's your planting. Have your seed dealer talk to their agronomist and come up with planting population recommendations for each number you intend to plant. I have been doing this for 5 years now and it makes a difference. Some highly flex ear size varieties waste your money if you get to high, some of the numbers i plant on 90-100 csr dirt at 30-32k and get 225-275bu, some require 36k+. I don't have any dirt that can't produce at least 175bu so my bottom end isn't as low, but i learned the first year i variable rate planted to not limit myself to much on the bottom end.
I normally do 3, sometimes 4 ranges
1: 26,500-28,500 Poorer ground
2: 28,500-30,500 Ave ground
3: 30,500-32,500 Good ground
4 32,500-36,500 Really good ground
And all of this gets adjusted depending on how flexible the variety is. Its a pain... i really have to know what is getting planted where ahead of time to get things all done right. If things change mid planting i have to adjust my maps or say screw it. I haven't done enough trails to know how much of a yield inrease i have seen but I have seen an increase, and a reduction in seed cost.
The first year i did this i had my poorer ground down around 22-24k. We had a decent year and it cost me some bushels.
Just my 2cents :) | |
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corn planting populations
