REACH FOR THE BOTTOM LINE
by David Morris, Secretary, Ontario Corn Committee

In a fast-paced tag-team presentation at the 2005 Corn, Soybean and Wheat Conference, Greg Stewart, Horst Bohner and Peter Johnson, each presented their suggestions for improving profits from corn, soybeans and wheat respectively. Here are their 4 top tips for each crop:

Corn
1. Apply a mix of atrazine and Roundup on Roundup Ready corn (instead of Roundup alone) and you can eliminate the need for a second application of Roundup.
2. Use the nitrogen rate calculator (available at www.gocorn.net) to determine the most economical rate of N to apply, based on your crop rotation, soil type, heat unit area, corn price and N cost.
3. For no-till corn after wheat, combine the wheat as short as possible and sell the straw. On loam soils, tandem disc and harrow in the fall, and direct plant in the spring. (This was suggested as a cost-cutting solution for the current year only. In the longer-term, returning the wheat residue is beneficial for building up the soil's organic matter.)
4. Getting corn up evenly, with respect to time, is a lot more important than having uniform plant spacing within the row. Replace worn double-disc openers and add seed firming devices to get the crop out of the ground as evenly as possible.

Soybeans
1. By planting in 15" rows (rather than 7.5" rows) and using treated seed, you can cut your seeding rate from 225,000 seeds/acre to 175,000 without significantly reducing yield.
2. Plan to apply postemergent herbicides no later than 20 days after planting. Any later than that, you risk losing 4/10 of a bushel per acre per day to weed competition. (To avoid unpleasant surprises, begin scouting for early emerging weeds, 14 days after planting.)
3. Scout for insect and disease problems throughout the growing season, regardless of the weather. Even late-season infestations of aphids can cut 5 bushels/acre or more off your yield. Check the OMAF Cropline (1-888-449-0937) for recommendations and crop alerts that are updated twice a week.
4. Adding extra coulters to the front of your drill, or doing some pre-tillage, can increase yields by 2 or 3 bushels/acre in no-till soybeans.

Wheat
1. Don't waste nitrogen by putting on more than necessary. The most economical rate for nitrogen on soft wheat is 80 Ibs/acre. Using 28% instead of urea can add 3 or 4 bushels/acre. (Recommended timing for 28% is mid-to late April.)
2. Applying a small amount of starter fertilizer placed right with the seed will increase yield in all cereal crops. For wheat, the increase can be as much as 8 to 10 bushels/acre.
3. Frost-seed spring wheat (and barley and oats, too).
4. Market smart! Forward contract some of your crop whenever you can get a good price. Use crop insurance with the floating price option as market insurance against these forward contracts. (Poor quality and the risk of not being able to plant the crop still exist. Know the grade discounts. If you are unable to plant, you will need to buy your contract back).