Before my dad passed away a few years ago, I asked him to tell me a little bit about the 1980s and how he survived the farm crisis. Back then, I was in high school and college, so I was around the farm, but I wasn’t the one paying the bills or making the decisions.
The number one thing he said to me is that many farmers were told by their lender to cut expenses.
The problem was, many people cut things that were making them money. Whether you are rich or poor, whether crop prices are high or low, Dad’s point was simply to focus on ROI always. If something is making you money, you have to keep that, but if something is giving a negative return on your investment, by all means – CUT IT!
While I can’t specifically answer whether or not any of the things I list in this article will provide you with a positive ROI, I’ll give you my general thoughts on each category.
Like I said in my other article in this edition of Agronomy Answers Yield, there are ways to cut your costs for most products through rebates, financing, or even switching chemistries, but here, I’ll look more at general categories.
DRAIN TILE
While this isn’t technically a crop input, drain tile in most situations pays incredibly well. Even though crop prices may not be great this year, if you need tile AND you can afford to put it in, I encourage you to do it. On our farm, even if we are in a year where we lose money, we will still tile any field that needs it because the long-term payoff for us is typically very large.
P & K
While these are always considered a crop input, have you considered looking at them as long-term investments?
If you can afford it in the short-term and you know you’re going to be farming for many more years, why not load up your soil with these non-leachable nutrients? For example, let’s say your normal practice is to put on 100 pounds of P & K each year for five years on heavy ground that you own. Why not put on 250 pounds each of the first two years and then mine it back out over the next three if you need to? Crop roots can’t come close to exploring 100% of your soil profile, but if you have more fertility out there, they have a better chance of finding what is needed, meaning you will likely get more yield, even though you spent the exact same amount over the same five-year period.
PRE-EMERGE HERBICIDE
While you can certainly go with a one-shot post program, if you have moderate to high weed pressure, I would be surprised if the total post application will beat a two-shot (pre plus post) method for weed control, yield, and ROI. Getting two chances at stopping weeds is a good thing. Plus, let’s say you ran with a Group 15 pre like we do on our farm, and then you follow with a cheap HPPD plus a little atrazine and Roundup post. That’s an inexpensive program, and it’s often about as much as you would spend in just a single total post application.
If you are concerned about the time it takes for another application, please consider spraying much earlier than normal with the pre.
Pre-emerge herbicides usually work great when they are applied on mornings when the ground is frozen, as long as the ground thaws out to some degree the same day so the herbicide can attach itself to the soil within a few hours. We’ve been doing that each March on our farm for decades. It’s a great way to get things done when almost no one else is in the field. Then when it comes time to plant, all we have to do is plant.
XYWAY
Xyway at planting time has proven to give disease control for several months. Sure, it stops crown rot and some very early season diseases, but it has also given suppression on diseases like tar spot. While you can’t replace a tassel-time application under moderate to heavy disease pressure, if all you have is light disease pressure you may not need to spray later on. Just like everything else in my list of corn inputs here, I encourage you to try some Xyway on a small scale for two to three years to see if it pays on your farm. It has been giving a good ROI in my operation, and I’ve seen a lot of success with this product, especially if you use the Xyway 3D and run it through their foaming system, 3Rive 3D.
FOLIAR FUNGICIDE
In very dry years in my region of the country, I do not recommend a tassel application of fungicide, since we don’t yet have much tar spot, southern rust, gray leaf spot, or northern corn leaf blight. However, in a wet year an application like this often pays, even in my area.
If you have one of the bad diseases I listed or another disease that robs a lot of your yield, you can certainly do what we’ve been doing, which is spraying a couple weeks before tassel so we can get through the field ourselves with our sprayer. You may need another application 3+ weeks after that if you are in a heavy disease area, but pre-tassel applications work well for protecting the ear leaf, which is the most influential leaf on a corn plant. By the way, drones are becoming more popular, and while the jury is still out in terms of performance, the ability to spray near trees, powerlines, or other places where airplanes won’t go is very helpful.
Whatever you choose here, just make your decision early. Fungicides are great at prevention, but if your crop is already loaded with disease, you are too late. Don’t waste the money at that point. Also, spray coverage with fungicides is absolutely critical, so make sure every single leaf you are trying to protect is coated with product.