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2025 Yields Part 2

York County Corn Grower Banquet will be held Thursday, November 20^th at Chances ‘R in York. Social at 6:30 p.m. with meal at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be reserved at the Extension Office at (402) 362-5508 or contacting a York Co. Corn Grower Director.

In last week’s column, we walked through the growing season providing perspectives of what may have caused yield loss. I mentioned that while people are looking for solutions, increased nitrogen rates, more fungicide applications, and tillage are not the answers for higher yields. In conversations, those were the “solutions” people were trying to provide. Several asked me for any patterns from observations and conversations I’ve had. That’s what I will attempt to share in this column. There’s a number of field situations where only 150 lb N and one fungicide application resulted in above-average yields. In those situations, correlations included balanced overall nutrition where nitrogen was reduced, TIMELY fungicide application, and not over-irrigating.

I realize quite a bit of tillage has occurred. Gently, please remember the wind events we receive each spring. I encourage you if you have tilled, to consider covering the ground with cereal rye. March 2025 was the windiest March on record in Nebraska and I remember several accidents due to poor visibility. I realize this is a hard topic. Tillage will not control southern rust as that fungus doesn’t overwinter in residue. It will help with the tar spot fungus, but there are other management considerations including hybrid and not over-applying nitrogen and irrigation.

Reduced nitrogen: It was interesting walking our on-farm research studies where we had nitrogen ramps this past year and observe the correlation between less southern rust in the lower nitrogen rates and more southern rust in the higher nitrogen rates. Dr. Bob Gunzenhauser observed the same thing this past year and posted a photo on X showing two hybrids and the variation of southern rust compared to nitrogen rates.

Timely fungicide application: There were people with better yields (250+) who applied only one fungicide while others applied two. I didn’t hear too much from those who applied three to five applications. Some applied two fungicide timings of two different generic products and did just as well as the higher priced products with one application. The key was not applying the fungicide too early so there was some later season residual. Some applied a second fungicide around late dough to early dent stage this year and that seemed to work for hybrids that were more prone to southern rust. The keys were knowing the hybrid, not having excess nitrogen, and proper irrigation management.

Irrigation Management was perhaps the thing that was most frustrating for growers. We started the season off so dry after several years of being dry. So, it’s easy to be in the mindset of irrigating. Anytime non-irrigated fields yield the same or more than irrigated fields, it’s often due to over-irrigation. Irrigation events often occurred before rain events this year. This year’s relative humidity was also very high, thus, the crop didn’t use as much water. Because of that, we were keeping some soils too wet by irrigating which, both Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer and I believe, added to the crown rot and stalk rot issues we experienced. Dr. Hoegemeyer also wrote a recent article reflecting on “60 Harvests – Changes I Have Seen — Nebraska Soil Health Coalition“.

Final thoughts, there’s not one answer but a combination of factors that impacted fields this year. There’s also a lot of farmers hurting with the combination of low yields, low commodity prices and high input costs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost per field in several situations. For those involved and/or interacting with the farming community, please reach out to each other and check in with each other. Please know you’re not alone and there’s always help and hope if you’re struggling. 988 is Nebraska’s suicide and crisis lifeline. There’s also a number of people who have announced retirements or will be announcing them. It’s important to be supportive. Conversations I’ve had with growers this year include: retiring to avoid taking on additional debt, wanting to scale back to reduce debt and stress, and retiring due to health reasons-both physically and anxiety/stress. It’s important for those retiring to retire “to something” by staying active in some way.

Posted in Crop Updates, JenREES Columns, Reflections

2025 Yields

Nov 10

Posted by JenBrhel

This harvest was a difficult one, plagued with breakdowns, slow-going in storm-damaged corn, and disappointing yields. While there were a few reports of decent yields, the overwhelming majority of farmers and seed dealers in the area have been disappointed. Honestly, I was worn down and needed a mental break before I could address this in writing. I asked Dr. Roger Elmore, Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer, Dr. Bob Nielsen, and Dr. Eric Hunt if my reasoning was on track and for their additional thoughts and am grateful to them.

Major Point: People are looking for solutions, but increased nitrogen rates, more fungicide applications, and tillage are not the answers. What went right? Balanced nutrient management with reduced nitrogen inputs, TIMELY fungicide application, and proper irrigation management are future keys.

We began the season with dry planting conditions. I was arguing we were potentially drier than Spring 2023 with the observations about rye and pastures not growing. Crops went into the ground quickly without cold snaps. Several farmers were completely done planting in April. Irrigation began early to get moisture into seedbeds and to activate herbicide. Plant stands and emergence were uneven, evidenced again at harvest with varying ear sizes and plants with ears that didn’t pollinate. I think that impacted us more than we realized. The Memorial Day weekend rains saved us.

A relief was that rain kept falling in spite of it varying greatly in timing and amounts. Some experienced higher non-irrigated yields in corn and soybeans compared to irrigated fields. That nearly always is due to too much irrigation and timing of those irrigations, often occurring right before a significant rain event.

We had a few wind/hailstorms in July and the fairly widespread Aug. 8-10 wind/hail event, which York Co. escaped. Much of the year we received lower than average solar radiation (which includes photosynthetically active radiation or PAR). There were several periods of cloudy/hazy/smoky days. Research utilizing shade cloth revealed 25-30% potential yield loss with shading occurring from R2-R6 stages in corn. As Dr. Roger Elmore pointed out, the hybrid maize model was predicting average yields at the end of the growing season in spite of the low PAR, which would suggest biotic (living) factors being the greater issue. Photosynthetic stress on plants can also include southern rust impacts on leaf tissue and stalk rots. I’m wondering if irrigation prior to heavy rain events exacerbated the fusarium crown rot/gibberella stalk rot we saw? Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer wondered the same thing. “Photosynthetic stress and stalk rot go together like beans and weenies. Each one can cause the other. We MAY have had some early infection with Fusarium/gib due to saturated soils/etc. As you know, high N rates, lower K available and a dozen other stress sources make it worse.”

High night-time temperatures burn sugars that should go into ears to fill kernels. I mentioned my concern about this throughout July and August. By mid to late August, ears began pre-maturely drooping, cutting off the food supply to kernels. Looking at kernels in numerous fields at harvest time, they appeared shriveled/pinched at the base. Dr.’s Tom Hoegemeyer, Roger Elmore, and Bob Nielsen all attribute that to stress occurring before black layer in which the kernels prematurely died before completing the normal black layer process. I feel the greatest contributors of this were the high night-time temperatures and the stresses of southern rust and stalk rots. Dr. Eric Hunt also mentioned the high humidity, particularly in York County due to the sheer amount of irrigation which may have led to increased disease pressure including stalk rots.

Dr. Bob Nielsen: “Your description of the kernels makes me think that kernel development was prematurely halted. Although, honestly, severe reductions in photosynthetic leaf tissue prior to BL (black layer) due to southern rust etc. or early onset of severe stalk rots would also prematurely shut down kernel development. And, of course,…(large) ears with excellent kernel set create a huge demand for photosynthate during grain fill, which exacerbates the negative effects of severe loss of photosynthetic leaf tissue and predisposes the stalk and root tissue to rapid fungal rot infection and development.”

Dr. Tom Hoegemeyer summed it up: “I think we had lots of issues that caused PS (photosynthetic) stress, some of which impacted our irrigated acres worse than our dryland acres. (My home dryland area had lots of 200 to 220 bpa corn and 65 to 70 bpa soybeans. After a dry spring, we had more rain than we’ve had for years). Irrigated corn in the area often wasn’t as good as the dryland, even with more N applied. The more stressors (hot nights, light limitations, too high N for the amt of light/PS–exacerbating disease issues, multiple leaf diseases combined with high humidity, continuous corn, etc.) the bigger the yield loss. And, in some instances, I think adding water to these fields hurt more than it helped.”