Back to back corn

[BenAllgood]

Does anyone do back to back corn? I know it's not normal and back to back crops are usually not done, but I've been so impressed with corn, that I'd love a way to have it every year. Deer have been in it for months. Maybe a crimson clover base with corn planted once it is finished?

 

[PatinPA]

Could you do half the plot in corn one year and rotate it?

 

[BenAllgood]

Could you do half the plot in corn one year and rotate it?

I have to come up with a way to make it lucrative for the farmer. I thought it was a bigger area, but when I measured, it was only 4 acres. The only thing I've told him this first year was if he planted corn, he didn't have to pay me anything as long as he put a cover crop on and disced some firebreaks for me. We never talked about what happens next year. I'm just getting ideas before I talk to him again.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have to come up with a way to make it lucrative for the farmer. I thought it was a bigger area, but when I measured, it was only 4 acres. The only thing I've told him this first year was if he planted corn, he didn't have to pay me anything as long as he put a cover crop on and disced some firebreaks for me. We never talked about what happens next year. I'm just getting ideas before I talk to him again.

You can go back to back to back, etc... It will just deplete minerals, you will need to add fertilizer, and lote of nitrogen. The longer you do it, the more damage to your soils. If you live in the midwest cornbelt, you probably wont have much problem, if you are in sandy soils, it may take some time to recover.

Manure is a good replenishment.

 

[yoderjac]

Does anyone do back to back corn? I know it's not normal and back to back crops are usually not done, but I've been so impressed with corn, that I'd love a way to have it every year. Deer have been in it for months. Maybe a crimson clover base with corn planted once it is finished?

I don't use corn. It is very expensive for its value down here. It may have more value in the north. When I say expensive, I'm not only referring to seed cost, but also spraying, and the N required for a monoculture of corn.

I have seen an interesting approach where a guy had hooked a sprayer up to his planter where the nozzles sprayed only over the rows. The established a low growing perennial clover was mowed and then the corn was planted into it with only the rows sprayed at a rate equivalent to 1 qt/ac. This suppressed the clover long enough for the corn to germinate and get above it. They used non-rr corn. The counted on the clover to provide weed control as well as to reduce the N required.

If I were to consider corn on corn, I'd think about an approach like this.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[BenAllgood]

I don't use corn. It is very expensive for its value down here. It may have more value in the north. When I say expensive, I'm not only referring to seed cost, but also spraying, and the N required for a monoculture of corn.

I have seen an interesting approach where a guy had hooked a sprayer up to his planter where the nozzles sprayed only over the rows. The established a low growing perennial clover was mowed and then the corn was planted into it with only the rows sprayed at a rate equivalent to 1 qt/ac. This suppressed the clover long enough for the corn to germinate and get above it. They used non-rr corn. The counted on the clover to provide weed control as well as to reduce the N required.

If I were to consider corn on corn, I'd think about an approach like this.

Thanks,

Jack

That was my reasoning for thinking about crimson clover. The crimson would be reaching end of life by the time corn was ready to be planted. Should be able to plant right into the drying up crimson. I've had good luck with CC reseeding itself too.

 

[yoderjac]

That was my reasoning for thinking about crimson clover. The crimson would be reaching end of life by the time corn was ready to be planted. Should be able to plant right into the drying up crimson. I've had good luck with CC reseeding itself too.

I don't know how it my work with crimson. It may depend on the timing in your area. It may be worth a try. The upside of perennial is that you are not planting it every year and the table is never empty.

 

[BenAllgood]

I don't know how it my work with crimson. It may depend on the timing in your area. It may be worth a try. The upside of perennial is that you are not planting it every year and the table is never empty.

The upside of crimson would be the same except with the added bonus of not having to kill it or suppress it. I've had crimson reseed itself easily. Crimson would be dying back right before corn needed to be planted.

 

[yoderjac]

The upside of crimson would be the same except with the added bonus of not having to kill it or suppress it. I've had crimson reseed itself easily. Crimson would be dying back right before corn needed to be planted.

That may be location dependent. My reseeding crimson lasts into early summer here. Can't hurt to try. For a number of years, I mixed corn and soybeans (both rr). I kept the corn component light enough that I could do that repeatedly with no added N. I did have good cobs on the corn, but my primary purpose was vertical cover in the beans.

 

[Bill]

My neighbor did back to back corn on Ag ground for 10 years. I don't know what he did fertilizer wise but he always had good corn. About 4 years ago he switched to back to back beans. Which I've done for 12 years. but my only harvest is what the deer eat.

 

[hillrunner]

Corn on corn is very common around here. You need to fertilize heavier and watch out for pests but obviously a lot of professional farmers think it pays.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Think we had corn on corn going on 18 years at the farm. It's a grass and fits well in our prairie environment. Finaly changed it up to beans this fall. 80% due to the cost of inputs.

 

[PatinPA]

I have to come up with a way to make it lucrative for the farmer. I thought it was a bigger area, but when I measured, it was only 4 acres. The only thing I've told him this first year was if he planted corn, he didn't have to pay me anything as long as he put a cover crop on and disced some firebreaks for me. We never talked about what happens next year. I'm just getting ideas before I talk to him again.

Oh didn't realize it was a farmer planting and not you yourself. They commonly do back to back corn around me but usually only 2-3 years then they do beans a couple years then sometimes WW/WR for a year. Maybe you could talk him into planting the field edges with something you want for free use? I'd like to plant some corn in a mix this year. Just curious to see how it would do. Plus I want it to cut down for soil building later on.

 

[BenAllgood]

Oh didn't realize it was a farmer planting and not you yourself. They commonly do back to back corn around me but usually only 2-3 years then they do beans a couple years then sometimes WW/WR for a year. Maybe you could talk him into planting the field edges with something you want for free use? I'd like to plant some corn in a mix this year. Just curious to see how it would do. Plus I want it to cut down for soil building later on.

I just really fell in love with corn after seeing how it compares to the drawing and holding power of other things I've hunted around or planted myself, including soybeans. With the corn, they never checked up. They were in it all summer through now and it provides cover as well. I really like it a lot. With crimson clover or another annual that would die back in time for corn plating in the mix, I would think it could be an almost 12 month plot. I guess I didn't really think they would use it as much as they did before the cobs were ready.

 

[PatinPA]

I just really fell in love with corn after seeing how it compares to the drawing and holding power of other things I've hunted around or planted myself, including soybeans. With the corn, they never checked up. They were in it all summer through now and it provides cover as well. I really like it a lot. With crimson clover or another annual that would die back in time for corn plating in the mix, I would think it could be an almost 12 month plot. I guess I didn't really think they would use it as much as they did before the cobs were ready.

That's interesting. Here they seem to hit the corn when it's young and green. Then when it starts to brown they lay off of it until it gets cut. Then they flood the fields looking for loose kernels that got missed. They definitely bed in it here. Always a good thing for me when the neighboring farms cut their corn.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

One of my former companies customers was doing something really interesting with his corn. This was in Eastern Iowa near the driftless region. He was growing 60 in corn rows with a hybrid that only got about 5 ft tall or so. Between the rows were brassicas or cereal grains. I think he averaged somewhere close to 300 bushels per acre with this setup. When he did rotate it was mostly due to pests. I wonder if you couldn't do soybeans between the rows if you don't really care about them getting harvested.

Something I'm going to try next year is drilling sorghum and soybeans every other row. I will probably not be fencing the plot so I will likely have to use a forage soybean.

 

[j-bird]

You can do back-to-back corn, you just have to put the soil amendments into it and apply the N needed. Corn is demanding on the soil as it is. I have a bottom field that my renter tends to plant in corn every year....his biggest risk is bugs and disease. We as plotters tend to adopt a lot of the same practices as production farmers do.....and to be honest, it's not really necessary. Most folks rotate beans for the nitrogen credits to reduce input costs and again to reduce the disease and bugs concerns.

 

[SD51555]

If I ever had the space, and didn't have to deal with bears and coons, I'd love to try 60" corn at a 50,000 in-row pop/acre. I'd also drag the planter over it a third time to put in a vining bean to climb and feed it.

Don't forget the chicory.

 

[Diesel5610]

One of my former companies customers was doing something really interesting with his corn. This was in Eastern Iowa near the driftless region. He was growing 60 in corn rows with a hybrid that only got about 5 ft tall or so. Between the rows were brassicas or cereal grains. I think he averaged somewhere close to 300 bushels per acre with this setup. When he did rotate it was mostly due to pests. I wonder if you couldn't do soybeans between the rows if you don't really care about them getting harvested.

Something I'm going to try next year is drilling sorghum and soybeans every other row. I will probably not be fencing the plot so I will likely have to use a forage soybean.

This has been done. There were a few guys doing different versions of it on the old QDMA forum. The guys doing it were having good luck with it depending on deer densities. We lost a lot of valuable reference material when they took that forum down.

 

[BenAllgood]

If I ever had the space, and didn't have to deal with bears and coons, I'd love to try 60" corn at a 50,000 in-row pop/acre. I'd also drag the planter over it a third time to put in a vining bean to climb and feed it.

Don't forget the chicory.

Thanks! That video is what I was hoping for. I'll have to look at some of their later stuff and see how it worked out over time. They used Durana. I've planted a TON of it in Louisiana. I like it, but wasn't sure how it would do trying to drill corn into it. That's why I was thinking crimson. That definitely gives me something to bring to my farmer though.