*(Reprinted with permission from SoyBean Digest-Feb 1998 Issue)
When it comes to dryland corn production, Dave Collins likes to think small. He has been running tests for five years to see if dwarf corn is a profitable alternative in arid parts of the corn belt.
"We're in an area where most farmers use a three-year rotation of wheat-corn-summerfallow" says Collins, a Gothenburg, NE, crop consultant. "We were looking for a way to rotate back to wheat and continuous-crop our dryland areas. We needed a crop that didn't produce a lot of residue and could be harvested by Sept. 15 so we could no-till drill wheat by Oct.1."
Dwarf corn seemed to fit that bill. The 70 day corn can be planted early, only grows 4 and a half feet tall and showed good yield potential where it was grown in Montana and the Dakotas.
Short season crop replaces fallow in arid areas
The first few years of Collins' tests showed that the corn could yield within 15-20 bu. of dryland conventional corn in a three year rotation. Furthermore, wheat following the dwarf corn matched yields of wheat following summerfallow.
"We knew we were in the ball game," says Collins.
The dwarf corn was not without its problems, however. When the short statured crop was planted in 30 inch rows, it didn't shade out weeds like the conventional crop does.
"We're limited in what herbicides we can use, because we want to go right back to wheat," he says. "It gets tricky."
Collins and Callaway, NE, farmer Gary Ross solved a number of management issues when they decided to drill the corn in 1997. They used a standard drill equipped with a coulter caddy and planted the dwarf corn in 7.5 inch rows at 50,000 plants per acre.
"We wanted to use a system that didn't require a farmer to add equipment or tie up his machinery during the normal heavy-use periods," Collins reports. "The dwarf corn was developed in Canada, so it can take cold, wet soil conditions. That allows us to drill seven to 10 days before corn planting begins," he explains. "We used a flex-head to harvest it, starting in the middle of September, before the normal harvest begins."
"I really think it's going to take over." says Ross. "The dwarf corn makes its ears so early, it leaves plenty of moisture for a wheat crop. And, there seems to be a beneficial effect of planting wheat into corn stubble."
There's a marketing advantage to the short season corn as well, he adds.
In most years, Ross gets at least 25 cents/bu. more for local cash sales with old -crop prices during September, compared to new-crop prices a month later, when he starts to harvest his full-season corn. The best he ever did with his dwarf corn was in 1995, when he harvested 100 bu/ac. and hauled it to a local feedlot for more than $4/bu.
"The biggest challenge with the dwarf corn is to make absolutely sure you control weeds; otherwise you've got a mess," says Collins. "And, you need to make sure you get good seed-to-soil contact, so you get the stand you need to shade out the weeds."
I recently visited Nebraska and found out the farmers were really excited about this dwarf corn concept. Since we already know how to achieve good seed-to-soil contact through our direct seeding machines, and have good straight cut combines, this gives us another crop in the warm season grass category to fill out our rotations. I have already ordered some seed and plan to include the dwarf corn in my 1998 rotation. I invite farmers to pencil out the economics, and maybe give it a try on some limited acres.
An article on short season dwarf corn in the summer 1997 issue of the Esso "Farm-Tek" magazine tweaked my interest when it explained research being done by Bob Hamilton of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. "He was pretty confident the crop could have a place in the prairies where about 2000 heat units existed." This would include an area of a lot of southern Manitoba, and parts of southern Saskatchewan below the trans-Canada highway and parts of southern Alberta. The local feed mills pay about C$3.75-3.90/bu. and a 90bu/ac crop beats the hell out of most wheats here.