corn – Views from VanDeWalle

Innovative Youth Corn Challenge

March 6, 2020 Brandy VanDeWalle

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers are in high demand and will continue to be in future years. To engage youth in crop science based education, the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge (IYCC) was created as a partnership between the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Extension. Since the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge program’s inception in 2012, 53 teams have participated in the program with 32 teams successfully harvesting and analyzing their plot data. A total of 148 youth have participated. This contest, open to 4-H or FFA members, guided participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

The winning team from the 2019 growing season was the Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club which included Kaleb and Landon Hasenkamp, Matthew and James Rolf, Levi Schiller, Ian and Payton Schiller. They worked with the UNL Project SENSE on an in-season nitrogen management program comparing using in-canopy sensors, a drone MZR treatment, or their standard grower treatment. Their results showed that the grower strips had the highest yield of 256.6 bu/acre but cost the most. The MZR treatment yielded 238.67 bu/acre. The Project SENSE treatment yielded 245.5 bu/acre and had the best return on investment. Also, it is important to note is that this team randomized their treatments and had 3 replications of the plots which is important in figuring out the statistical significance. Their project sponsor was Chris Schiller.

Receiving second place was the Allen-Wakefield FFA Chapter which consisted of Katie Bathke and Ashley Kraemer with Jeff Geiger as their sponsor and Josh Batenhorst as their advisor. They wanted to test a polymicrobial solution for bulk fertilizers called Nachurs Rhyzo-Link LF. The hypothesized that the treated plants would yield better due to the five Bacillus strains creating a better environment for the roots. They found that the Rhyzo-Link plot had a yield of 243 bu/acre compared to 240 bu/acre for the control, with five replications.

Third place went to the Rising Stars 4-H Club from Platte County which consisted of Kade and Isaac Stromberg with Brad Stephens as their sponsor. They tested seeding a blend of two hybrids compared to each planted separately. They had two replications and found that the blend of Pioneer 1197AM with Dekalb DKC60-88RIB yielded 245.48 bushels/acre, while the 1197 by itself yielded 243.99 and the 60-88 yielded 240.29 by itself. This team also took advantage of an offer from Crop Metrics to have a free soil water sensor placed in their field to monitor irrigation scheduling.

Other teams who completed their plots were the Oakland-Craig FFA team of Joe Monson, Aiden Jorgensen, Ryan Smith, Cole Buress, Hannah Mosemen with Kylie Penke as their sponsor. They tested Envite seed treatment, which is supposed to help non-legume plants fix nitrogen to see if there would be an increased yield when the nitrogen rate on the entire plot was reduced by 40%. They found that the Envite plot had a yield of 232 bu/acre compared to 229 bu/acre for the control.

Also finishing their project was Shelton FFA with Jacob Synder and Andrew Rayburn and Hannah Horak as their advisor. The main topic of their research was a starter fertilizer with a microbial catalyst called Nachur’s Rhyzo-Link 9-15-3. They had 2 reps and found that the Nachur’s Rhyzo-Link yielded 230.25 bu/acre at a cost of $9.95 per acre and no treatment yielded 224.4 bu/acre.

Other teams that participated but due to various circumstances were unable to finish their project included Adams Central FFA Chapter, Ord FFA Chapter and the Golden Gate Clever Clovers 4-H Club of Washington County.

As a team, youth worked with an adult mentor throughout the process. Mentors can be extension faculty, ag teachers, or other qualified agronomy professionals.

Other awards handed out during the banquet held on UNL’s East Campus included:

The Extra Mile Award went to the Rising Stars 4-H Club.
The Innovation Award was presented to the Kornhusker Kids 4-H Club.
The Sustainability Award went to the Rising Stars 4-H Club. They utilized the Field to Market tool which is a leading multi-stakeholder initiative that is working to unite the agricultural supply chain in defining, measuring and advancing the sustainability of food, fiber and fuel production in the United States.

To participate in 2020, youth must complete and return an entry form by March 15^th to the Fillmore County Extension Office in Geneva, NE. Forms can be downloaded at https://cropwatch.unl.edu/youth/cornchallenge. For more information, contact Brandy VanDeWalle at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops, Programming, Youth

7th Annual Innovative Youth Corn Challenge

February 14, 2018February 2, 2018 Brandy VanDeWalle

iycc-cover Attention 4-H and FFA Youth! Do you enjoy being outside? Learning new things about crops? Considering a career involving crops, insects, diseases, soils, water or more? Do you want to help figure out how to feed our world’s growing population in a sustainable way?

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers are in high demand and will continue to be in future years. To engage youth in crop science based education, the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge (IYCC) was created as a partnership between the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Extension. Since the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge program’s inception in 2012, 35 teams have participated in the program with 20 teams successfully harvesting and analyzing their plot data. A total of 105 youth have participated. This contest, open to 4-H members or FFA members, guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

2017 participants attended the banquet in January to receive recognition for their hard work.

Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Corn Board are offering the seventh Innovative Youth Corn Challenge contest. This contest, open to 4-H members (age 10 & older as of Jan. 1st) or FFA members (in-school members), guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

As a team (2 or more participants), youth will be challenged to implement a production practice different than normal to determine if they increased their yield. Economics and sustainability of the practice will also be considered. Yields, cropping history, and production information will be collected in the Corn Yield Challenge management summary.

Cash prizes and plaques are given. First place receives $1,000, second place receives $500, and third place receives $250. Sustainability, crop scouting and “extra mile” awards are also given as cash awards.

To participate in 2018, youth must complete and return an entry form by March 15^th to the Fillmore County Extension Office in Geneva, NE. Forms can be downloaded after January 1^st at cropwatch.unl.edu/youth/activities. For more information, contact Brandy VanDeWalle at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops, Uncategorized, Youth

Innovative Youth Corn Challenge

February 24, 2017 Brandy VanDeWalle

Attention 4-H and FFA members! Do you enjoy being outside? Learning new things about crops? Considering a career involving crops, insects, diseases, soils, water or more? Do you want to help figure out how to feed our world’s growing population in a sustainable way?

Nebraska Extension and the Nebraska Corn Board are offering the sixth Innovative Youth Corn Challenge contest. This contest, open to 4-H members (age 10 & older as of Jan. 1st) or FFA members (in-school members), guides participants through all aspects of corn production, as well as agricultural careers related to corn production.

Each year youth are surveyed and an overwhelming majority indicate an improvement in knowledge in the areas of: economic thresholds to treat pests, crop scouting procedures, financial record keeping, determining if practices on a field are profitable and how to evaluate new products/practices on a field. One youth stated, “I learned about how much time and hard work is needed to care for corn.” Several other youth enjoyed meeting new people (as a result of the Innovative Youth Corn Challenge). Another participant said, “I realize what I do today matters for tomorrow.” iycc-cover

Cash prizes and plaques will be given to the first, second, and third place teams. First place will receive $1,000, second place will receive $500, and third place will receive $250. Sustainability, crop scouting and “extra mile” awards will also be given, each worth $200. A webpage and FaceBook page are available with resources to help participants complete their project that can be found at cropwatch.unl.edu webpage under “related topics” titled “youth and youth activities”.

To participate in 2017, youth must complete an online entry form by March 15^th to the Fillmore County Extension Office in Geneva, NE. Hard copy forms can also be downloaded. For more information, contact me at brandy.vandewalle@unl.edu.

Crops

Assessing Need for Replanting Corn

May 16, 2014 Brandy VanDeWalle

I have received a couple of questions on how to take stand counts and with the storm damage and recent weather conditions decided to highlight some information from UNL’s CropWatch website on Time to Dig In and Assess Need for Replanting Corn written by Roger Elmore, Extension Cropping Systems Agronomist and others. First, let’s review how to take stand counts. In short, after you know your row width (inches), there are given numbers that correspond to row width you will need to measure and count the plants in a row and multiply that by 1000 to calculate plants/acre. For example, most corn in our area is planted into 30-inch rows. The row length in feet to equal 1/1000 of an acre is 17’5” so you would measure out 17’5” in a row, count the number of corn plants in that length and multiply is by 1000. This would tell you how many plants/acre you have in that row. Do this several times in the field.

After you have your average plant populations, calculate the losses from planting to final stands. University research trials suggest 4-7% is typical, but final stands are within 1-4% of seeding rates for top managers. If your attrition losses are 10% or more, examine what happened. Elmore and others suggest considering the following: seed viability, insect such as cutworms, wireworms and white grubs, diseases, compaction and soil crusting and cold soils. One should also scout for weed management issues. Scout weeds within two weeks of corn emergence to evaluate efficacy of burn down and pre-emergence herbicides. Early emerging weeds such as marestail should be controlled early on to avoid early-season competition.

After examining these factors, one must decide if replanting is necessary. For example, if plants have emerged but have variable heights or development, even though a yield reduction is possible, it’s not necessarily a reason to replant. Plant height differences may reflect lack of uniformity in emergence timing or other issue the plant faced. Replanting may however be necessary with reduced planting populations. The most important factor in deciding whether to replant is to calculate expected yield with the current stand versus what you could potentially have if you replanted. Finally, one must estimate the replanting costs of seed, fuel, additional pesticides and labor. Also, be sure to contact your crop insurance agent, Farm Service Agency and others with an interest in your crop.

The full CropWatch article provides more information and some useful tables to help you with your consideration of replanting.

(Source: cropwatch.unl.edu, article Time to Dig In and Assess Need for Replanting Corn by Elmore, Jackson-Ziems, Grassini, Jhala, & Wright)

Crops

Corn Disease Update

July 13, 2012July 13, 2012 Brandy VanDeWalle

Last week, I received an email from Tamara Jackson, Extension Plant Pathologies that they’ve received confirmation from a colleague in the Pioneer lab in Iowa and Kevin Korus in our UNL Plant & Pest Diagnostic Clinic, which confirmed southern rust in 2 samples from Fillmore County. Both came from irrigated fields and the incidence and severity were low, but this is certainly something we will need to be on the lookout for.

Since then, southern rust has been confirmed in Adams, Clay, Hall and Thayer Counties as well in south central Nebraska and Burt County in northeast Nebraska. Warm temperatures and high humidity may promote the development and spread of disease.

Tamara indicates that “Southern rust is an aggressive pathogen and can spread and worsen very quickly at optimal temperatures and with humidity and moisture to support infection. The warm night temperatures and high humidity likely are to blame, as well as the outbreak of the disease in southern states from which our spores probably originated. In addition, we have had recent development of common rust, which is much less damaging and concerning, but may create some confusion when making diagnoses in the field. While the color of the spores/pustules can be different, this is really an unreliable and difficult characteristic to use to differentiate the diseases. Southern rust (tan to orange color) tends to sporulate predominately on the UPPER leaf surface, and common rust (red to brown) sporulates equally well on BOTH leaf surfaces.”

She indicated that the most reliable way to tell them apart is in the laboratory with microscopic examination of the spores, which UNL’s Diagnostic lab is able to do quickly, so she recommend submitting samples to the UNL P&PDC for identification.

Tamra and other colleagues have submitted an article with several other timely cropping updates that are posted on the CropWatch website. Also check out our NebGuide “Rust Disease of Corn in Nebraska”.

So, now’s the time to be scouting those fields for gray leafspot as well as rust diseases and making decisions based on current recommendations. Check out the Gray leafspot NebGuide.

Crops, Youth

Shorter than Normal Corn?

July 6, 2012 Brandy VanDeWalle

Crop ET Weekly Report
The ETgage I outside of Geneva changed 2.0 inches for the week of June 29 – July 6^th. Corn in the reproductive stages has a coefficient of 1.1 inches so corn in the area used 2.2 inches or .31 inches per day.

Have you noticed shorter than normal corn?

One thing many have either noticed or heard is how unique this growing season is from most others. From various crop professionals to horticulturists, this year has definitely been different from other years I’ve experienced since in Extension with plants progressed earlier than normal. It has also been a drier than in recent years. With that in mind, I’ve had several questions which were recently addressed on UNL Extension’s CropWatch website which I’m summarizing below.

In many areas of the state we’re seeing shorter than normal corn this year, leading to the question, “Why this year?” To explain this, Keith Glewen, UNL Extension consulted with two top corn physiology experts — Bob Nielsen, extension corn specialist at Purdue University, and Tom Hoegemeyer, professor of practice in the UNL Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. His CropWatch article depicts the following information.

Nielsen and Hoegemeyer explain that a variety of interacting factors can lead to shorter than normal corn. First, let’s look at this corn crop to date. We planted most of the crop much earlier than normal, which led to corn plants developing during a period when in most years, the seed would still be in the bag. After planting, we experienced warm daytime growing conditions and cool, almost cold nighttime temperatures.

The mature corn plant height depends on three factors: amount of solar radiation on the top leaves during growth, water, and temperature. We usually don’t have issues with solar radiation limitations in the western Corn Belt; this year water was more of a factor. Much of the young corn plant’s development was in drier than normal growing conditions. There was adequate moisture for growth but nothing like we have experienced in recent years.

Water availability and temperature impact growth rate. Cell division is affected much less than cell expansion, and slower growth rates lead to slower root development, further limiting water uptake and nutrients. Slower cell expansion leads to shorter internodes and smaller leaves, and this leads to less water uptake and light interception, CO2 uptake, further impacting growth. Because of these changes, we have less internode elongation and thus early planted corn tends to be shorter than later planted corn.

Will conditions leading to shorter corn impact yield? Not necessarily. More important to the final yield of this year’s crop is the heat and moisture stress that the crop is now experiencing as it moves into pollination. With the high heat we experienced this week, it will be a concern.

Fillmore County Fair

Fillmore County 4-Her’s will be showcasing their projects July 14-19^th at the Fillmore County Fair. As we prepare for this event, it is important to emphasize that 4-H youth are more important than 4-H projects, learning how to do a project is more important than the project itself, competition is a natural human trait and should be recognized as such in 4-H work; it should be given no more emphasis than other 4-H fundamentals. And one of my favorite points is that, “a blue ribbon 4-H’er with a red ribbon entry is more desirable than a red ribbon 4-H’er with a blue ribbon entry.”

Come and support 4-H’ers with fair activities as listed below:

Saturday, July 14

9 a.m. Horse Show

Sunday, July 15
4:30 p.m. 4-H/FFA Youth Livestock Judging Contest

Monday, July 16

Check out the 4-H/FFA Static Exhibits, Ag Hall

8:00 a.m. Sheep Show, Goats following

3:00 p.m. Rabbit & Poultry Show

Tuesday, July 17

6:30-8:30 a.m. 4-H Breakfast, Ag Hall

8:00 a.m. Swine Show

6:30 p.m. Cake Auction

7:00 p.m. 4-H Awards Night

Wednesday, July 18

Prior to Beef Show Feeder calves, check-in

8:00 a.m. Beef Show

Thursday, July 19

8:00 – 10:30 a.m. Round Robin Showmanship

Noon 4-H Picnic, Ag Hall

1:30 p.m. Livestock Sale

Crops

Field Flooding & Its Effects

May 4, 2012 Brandy VanDeWalle

Last week’s heavy rains in parts of the county reminded me of an article I read last year about the survivable chances for corn that has been flooded in low-lying areas so I’ve summarized and put some excerpts from an article written by R.L. Bob Nielsen from the Purdue University, Agronomy Department. Obviously, plants that are completely submerged are at higher risk than those that are partially submerged and the longer an area remains ponded, the higher the risk of plant death.

Nielsen reported that most agronomists believe that young corn can survive up to about 4 days of outright ponding if temperatures are relatively cool (mid-60’s F or cooler); fewer days if temperatures are warm (mid-70’s F or warmer). As I write this, today’s high is expected to be 83 degrees and tomorrow at 90 degrees, so this isn’t necessarily good news for those corn plants in standing water. Soil oxygen is depleted within about 48 hours of soil saturation. Without oxygen, the plants cannot perform critical life sustaining functions; e.g. nutrient and water uptake is impaired and root growth is inhibited.

Even if surface water subsides quickly, the likelihood of dense surface crusts forming as the soil dries increases the risk of emergence failure for recently planted crops. Young corn (less than at the V6 stage, like our current conditions) is more susceptible to ponding damage than corn beyond the sixth leaf stage. This is because young plants are more easily submerged than older and taller plants and since the corn plant’s growing point remains below ground until about V6. The health of the growing point can be assessed initially by splitting stalks and visually examining the lower portion of the stem. Within 3 to 5 days after water drains from the ponded area, look for the appearance of fresh leaves from the whorls of the plants.

Another consideration is that extended periods of saturated soils AFTER the surface water subsides can also take their toll on the overall vigor of the crop, causing stunted roots and dying roots. As a result, plants may be subject to greater injury during a subsequently dry summer due to their restricted root systems.

Loss of nutrients is another concern on saturated soils. Significant loss of soil N will cause nitrogen deficiencies and possible additional yield loss. Lengthy periods of wet soil conditions also favor the development of seedling blight diseases, especially those caused by Pythium fungi. Poorly drained areas of fields are most at risk for the development of these diseases and will also be risky for potential replant operations. There are other diseases that can affect flooded areas of corn as well, but for now, it’s kind of a wait and see until you can get into the field and assess the health of the growing point.

More information can be found from the Effects of Flooding or Ponding on Young Corn article by R.L. Nielsen.