Learning from 2023 Yields

Harvest is well underway. Yields are coming in better than expected on corn but are all over the place on beans. Reports of 200 plus bushel corn have not been uncommon. I have heard anywhere from 25 to 80 bushel beans. With such a range of yields, I have been speaking to a lot of growers about what worked this year and what didn’t.

The growers that put a little more fertilizer on this year are saying that they were glad that they did. Many mentioned that their crop didn’t seem to stress as much during the hot dry periods. Others have stated that they wish they would have used N-Serve with their spring applied nitrogen. They saw that their corn started to fire up before expected, especially compared to some of their neighbors.

One grower who put fungicide on all their corn except for one field could really tell the difference. He said that the non-fungicide corn was falling apart, was just dirty to combine, and was yielding 20 to 25 bushels less than the corn that had fungicide applied.

We have also seen that fungicide on beans has shown to be a good investment also. We conducted a few tests on some beans and on average it has been a three bushel advantage. We also saw on some heavily hailed beans that a foliar fertilizer seemed to help the regrowth to happen faster.

Planning for next year’s crop has already started. We are discussing products that worked this year that we want to use again next year. Take the time to give your SFG agronomist a call when making your plans for 2024. Ask about what products we recommend, and we’ll be glad to tell you why.