A lot of corn is going in the ground right now as we're having some good planting weather. These pics are of the neighbor that rents my cropland. He ripped the ground last fall after soybean harvest, and then put anhydrous down, ran a harrow over it, and no tills the corn.

Interesting James, The soil looks red? I was told at Iowa State the redder the soil is the more organic matter it has.

Corn planting is a good two weeks away here in Iowa, except for for the high steppers.

Richard, some our soil here is red clay based. This particular field is some of my most productive ground. I mostly posted this because I know you like those tractors........lol. My neighbor started out with JD tractors, but over the years has switched his big tractors and combine to red ones.

James, what population does he plant the corn?

Jake likes 33,000, or so.

Not sure, but I'll ask him sometimes. The trend is towards the higher populations, especially on good producing ground. I remember when I was farming, 20,000 was considered high, but that was in wide rows.

James and wagigoon what do you consider average yields in your areas. Corn has been tried here ,didn't work out because of our short season. Some guys still plant it and turn their cattle out on it in winter.

Fox, today, anything under 200 bushels is a short crop.

With good weather, corn here will make 200 bushels plus on the good ground, and I'm guessing an average of 180-190 across the board. It just depends on the weather.

My relatives in Iowa say around 200 bushels average. Planting here is around May 5 average. Durum, lentils, canola are the main crops.

Canola has been tried here several times, but it has just never caught on. The wheat here is soft red winter, and is planted in the fall, harvested in June, and soybeans are no-tilled into the wheat stubble. It was hoped that canola could be substituted for wheat, giving farmers another option. I love to see it growing, as it's a pretty crop in the field.

Canola is the mainstay of the northern grain belt. A lot of guys are wheat,barely, oats/ canola every second year. Soybeans have been tried here but didn't work out. In my area a lot of guys are canola,durum, lentils 1/3 of each year after year.

Is that a stabilized nitrogen fertilizer? And is it the only nitrogen fertilizer applied for the corn?

Boomer, as far as I know, anhydrous by itself is not stabilized, but a stabilizer can be added to it. My understanding is that a stabilizer is needed if it is applied in the fall or winter months, rather than just prior to planting. Anhydrous is the most widely used form of nitrogen here for corn, with liquid nitrogen being the next most. Dry fertilizer in the form of urea can also be used, but it's more expensive and subject to loss if not incorporated into the soil, either by water or by working it in.

I do not raise crops like corn anymore, so I'm probably not a very good person to ask. We spread dry fertilizer on hay and pasture land, and it contains nitrogen, but I do not believe any of it is stabilized.

Thank you, James. I think those techniques are a pretty interesting alternative to regular spreading like we and most other farmers over here still use.

Boomer, when I was farming, I used dry fertilizer on my corn. That was about 25 years ago. I would put starter fertilizer in the row, spread some more, and then after the corn was up, and maybe 6 inches tall, I would put urea on. I'd try and time it, and put it on right before a rain in order for it to go into the ground.

There's also a lot of chicken litter used here as fertilizer, and the local Amish and Mennonite dairy farms spread liquid manure on their crop fields. The smell is awful, but I guess they don't mind.

Planting here is one pass. Separate seed and fertilizer openers. Seed directly into last years stubble with about 10% soil disturbance. Most people heavy harrow wheat and canola stubble in the fall. Always interesting to hear the farming practices of different areas.

Finished the anhydrous about a week ago and I plan to start planting corn next Wednesday. There's some corn in the ground already but I'm in no hurry, still early.

Seems like every couple years I bump up my population, last year I was at 33k, I'm thinking I might plant part of it at 34k this year. I have some ground that'll make 225 bu, and some hill ground that 175 is about all I can coax out of it. If I can average 200 bu farm wide I'm a happy guy.

Richard lives up there where the good ground is.

Richard lives up there where the good ground is. [/quote]

Jake sets the planter at 33,000 ;plus.

I've heard that you can throw a grain of corn out on the ground anywhere in Iowa, and it'll make a bin full.

To be serious, we work , and invest a fair amount to attempt to build up the soils.

That's called good stewardship. You have to take care of the land if you want it to take care of you.

Indeed James, the same with cattle.

This. It's an investment that pays off.

The soil disturbance thing is pretty interesting to me. Here it's the norm to do three passes with a cultivator, sometimes also ploughing. The fields are a size where wind erosion isn't really a thing, so a lot of this is to fight weeds, even moreso when they'll make glyphosate illegal next year. We have a lot of sugar beets, so keeping all the soil together without mulching or keeping the weeds out if you mulch will be harder.

Boomer, here in my part of the world, no-till is most used method, followed by minimum till. On my land here, there are 3 crops grown in two years. The first year, corn will be planted, harvested in the late summer and early fall. Wheat is then planted, either my no-tilling into the corn stubble, or by discing the corn stalks in, and drilling the wheat in. The wheat will be harvested in June, and then soybeans are no-till planted. It is not unusual to see both a combine, and a planter in the field at the same time, as it is important to get the soybeans planted as soon as possible. For a few years, there were people seeding the soybeans before wheat harvest, by using a plane to drop the beans into the wheat. That method was just dependent on too many things in order for it to work, and was soon abandoned.

Not all land is good for wheat, as wheat likes a well drained soil. On the land that wheat is not grown on, a corn-soybean rotation is used. It's rare here to see corn and beans grown without being rotated. A lot of the soil here is prone to erosion, and that's why no-till is so popular. Of course, no-till is very dependent on chemicals, especially glysophate. The use of Roundup (glysophate) is widespread, and it would be interesting to see what would happen without it.

James, do you get deep frost in the soil, or frost at all?

Richard, I'm assuming you're talking about the ground freezing and staying that way most of the winter. The answer would be no. Some years, we'll have a cold spell with below freezing temps for maybe a week or so. Then the ground will freeze, sometimes deep enough to freeze up a water line if it hasn't been put in deep enough. But, the weather here just doesn't stay cold enough the entire winter for it to remain frozen all winter long, especially with the way it's changed over the course of the past 20 years or so.

The record here for the lowest temp is -22, and I've seen -20, and lots of cold in the minus 10 to 15 range. But, it just doesn't stay that way very long. We'll have lots of mornings in the winter when the overnight temp is cold enough to freeze the gound hard enough to allow you to run equipment over it without making ruts. But, it's usually thaw out by mid-day, and get soft again.

I know that farmers in your area can put anhydrous down in the fall, and the frozen ground will hold it in. We can't do that here.

I am told frost loosens soil, and keeps it from wearing down as fast.

I'm thinking that one of the ideas behind plowing in the fall was to let the freeze thaw cycles loosen the ground and discing in the spring would smooth it down.
Of course plowing brings new seeds to the surface also I guess.

Speaking of loosening the soil (tilth) does anyone here use Gypsum to improve the tilth/water absorption of their soil?

I've heard of it Louis. That's all.

James, that is really interesting. I've heard of two harvests from the field in America, but our vegetation periods are just too short for that. When growing wheat twice in a row was still a thing here, you'd see people seeding right behind the combine, too, though. However, that's just not profitable anymore.

The whole frost loosening thing is actually still used by many farmers here, although we don't do it anymore since the winters barely get cold enough for any significant frost to loosen the soil and if you plow too late or when it's too wet you do more harm than good with plowing. Of course the best way to loosen up your soil is to not compact it in the first place, which is why we rarely if ever work a field when it's still wet out.

shiddtt man.........

still snowin' & winds outta the NW at 37 mph........

plant what ?

Snowing a bit here today.

Too bloody cold to plant corn in Iowa!