THAT’S 46 DAYS!
46 DAYS MAY SEEM LIKE ENOUGH TIME TO PLANT CORN, BUT CONSIDER THIS…
- Since I want to plant soybeans timely and do a whole bunch of other jobs on the farm, I’d really like to have the corn planted by May 5. That means instead of 46 days, I’m now down to 26 days.
- On average, it’s going to rain about five days in that time. Now, I’m down to 21 days.
- After each of those five rains, since it’s cold here in April and early May, we probably lose two days each time just waiting for the soil to dry out. Now, we’re down to 11 days to plant all the corn.
- If there’s a breakdown, a family event, or something else that comes up, we probably lose another day or two. That puts us at just nine or ten days to plant more than 2300 acres of corn on our farm!
I didn’t run through this whole list to stress you out or heap more pressure on you. One of the great things our dad always did was pushed us to think about the ending date rather than the BEGINNING date.
What I mean by that is when we would go through every job we had to do on the farm, how long it would take, and what was holding us back from reaching our target for an end date for planting, spraying, harvesting, or anything else, we were forced to evaluate our situation in more detail. Do we have enough equipment and labor to get the job done timely? If so, that’s awesome. If not, we had to look at either figuring out a way to start earlier or get more or different equipment or more help.
THE CHEAPEST OPTION (AND OFTEN THE BEST OPTION) WAS ALWAYS
STARTING EARLIER.
HOWEVER…
It is possible the seed you purchased can’t handle early planting very well. We have tested many “competitor” hybrids, and while the warm germination percentage is usually good, the cold germ is not.
Plus, they don’t have the extra seed treatments like Nutri-Cycle, Heat Shield, and more you’ll find on 40 Series Corn. I know it seems crazy when we are the only company out there advising you to plant corn seed in 40-degree soils, but we’ve been testing this for more than a decade.
In the two years 40 Series Corn has been on the market and on LOTS of acres, we’ve had zero cold-soil replants – not a single replant due to cold soil temps!
THIS CORN CAN HANDLE COLD SOILS!
If you are able to plant early, that frees up so much time for all the other jobs on your farm. 40 Series Corn gives you what no other seed can – MORE TIME.
SOYBEANS
We are big believers in planting corn before soybeans if top yield is your objective, but that doesn’t mean we want soybeans planted late. In our region, April soybeans are outyielding May soybeans, which is why our farm and many others have moved all their soybean planting into April.
HOWEVER…
If you plant any crop in cold soils, it will sit there for a while before it emerges. That gives diseases and insects more opportunity to feast on your crop. Many of the same seed treatment components we use to make 40 Series Corn work in 40-degree soil temps are part of Hefty Complete Soybean Seed Treatment. So, you probably know where we’re going next…
WE ARE PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE SEEING YOU PUT SOYBEANS IN 40-DEGREE SOILS IF THOSE BEANS ARE TREATED WITH HEFTY COMPLETE!
Of course, just like with corn, we want to see a high cold germination score, so either test your soybeans to make sure – or just plant Hefty Brand.
IF YOU WANT TO PLANT EARLY, WE REALLY ONLY HAVE 3 ABSOLUTE KEYS:
- 1
Plant as soon as crop insurance will cover you…
- 2
AND if your soil is dry…
- 3
AND if you are using 40 Series Corn or Soybeans treated with Hefty Complete!