A successful harvest depends not only on crop conditions but also on properly functioning equipment. While you can’t eliminate all harvest losses, you can identify the source and adjust harvest equipment for optimum performance.

Fertilizer programs should begin with accurate soil testing. Growers who can self-sample reduce costs and better understand their soil situations. Review best practices so your samples lead to more reliable results and more educated management decisions.

Maximizing yield starts with correct planting, and correct planting starts with adjusting the planter to the proper settings. Carefully check planting equipment before you hit the field this spring.

Planting larger seeds creates challenges. Growers should follow some basic management tips.

Extensive university research illustrates that corn planted in a twin-row configuration can have a significant yield advantage versus a single-row crop. Several factors support this conclusion.

An important part of corn silage production is proper and timely harvest management. Follow these guidelines when harvesting Mycogen^® brand Silage-Specific™ hybrids to be rewarded with corn silage that can help add profit to the bottom line.

Dry summers and relentless pests increase your corn crop’s susceptibility to aflatoxins, which are harmful to livestock. Reduce your exposure with effective management.

Early frost at harvest can lead to high or uneven moisture, low test weights and increased foreign material. Careful planning and management of drying and storage can help maintain yield.

Heavy wind and rain late in the growing season can dramatically affect corn. Flooding, downed plants and disease are just a few of the potential management challenges related to extreme weather. Consider your options for recovering as much value as possible and take precautions when storing and feeding damaged corn.

Since the adoption of corn hybrids with biotechnology traits, growers have continued to see more consistent 200-bushel-plus corn crops in past seasons. However, increased yields have created the challenge of dealing with increased levels of residue when planting next year’s crop.

Strip-till is a conservation system that uses minimum tillage. It combines the soil-drying and warming benefits of conventional tillage with the soil-protection advantages of no-till by disturbing only the soil that will contain the seed row. Strip-till rows are usually about 8 to 10 inches wide. Because special equipment is required for this type of tillage, understanding what is needed for a strip-till system can help you determine if it’s the right practice for your fields.

Summer drought noticeably limits corn silage production by reducing ear size and stalk growth. As few as four consecutive days of visible wilting during vegetative growth can reduce grain or forage yield by as much as 5 to 10 percent. Yield losses of 40 to 50 percent are possible if high temperatures and limited rainfall coincide with silking and reproductive stages.

Applying a portion of your crop’s nitrogen (N) requirement with irrigation water is a best management practice to reduce nitrate leaching in coarse soils. New irrigation technology systems have made the process of chemigating easier.