Planting corn questions

[JDeerekid]

My neighbor has approached me about growing corn on his land. This because I now have a large tractor and he has about 60-80 acres that he thinks he is going to make money on. The land has just been bush hogged for as long as I know of which is about 20 years.
His plans are to grow corn and sell it to the new ethonol plant that is suppose to be opening soon.
What my question is he told me he is going to by whole corn that they sell for feed. Will this grow the same as buying actual seed corn. Price difference is $7-$8 a bag versus $100-$200 a bag.

Also I heard alot of farmers are putting in soybeans this year instead of corn. Mainly the cost difference. Input on soybeans is less and get more money than corn???

I am willing to try anything if he is paying for it.

thanks

 

[deereguy]

You get what you pay for! The $200/bag corn will out-yield the $10/bag corn, his inputs should be the same whatever bag he decides to purchase, however the yield will be where he sees the $$.

 

[Tritonman]

Corn seed is a hybrid, remember back to genetics class when Mendel crossed his peas (grean, yellow, short tall, etc) buying whole corn will just have a mix of the good bad stuff that will cross with more bad stuff. Do not, I repeat do not plant crap corn-have him spend the money or else save the money and don't plant anything.

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

Corn seed is a hybrid, remember back to genetics class when Mendel crossed his peas (grean, yellow, short tall, etc) buying whole corn will just have a mix of the good bad stuff that will cross with more bad stuff. Do not, I repeat do not plant crap corn-have him spend the money or else save the money and don't plant anything.

I totally agree. Since both of you were considering using feed corn for seed corn, I get the idea that neither of you has ever planted corn. Get some good advice from someone with experience. Corn is not just a plant it and watch it grow crop. You need a soil test to determine your lime and fertilizer needs. Corn takes lots of fertilizer and you need a good way to apply it. Till or no-till? Roundup Ready or non Roundup Ready seed corn? What type of planter? Weed control, very important. These are only a few things to consider. Again, get some good advice form someone who has "been there, done that."

 

[JDeerekid]

Yes I have grown corn before mostly sweet corn for my garden and some for the feild corn for the deer that I plant and if it come up it does and if it doesn't I dont worry about it. I work at a fertilizer blend plant and also sell all the seed from some of the big names such as Seedway, FS Seed, NK, Pioneer to name a few, also sell all the liquid chemicals. I know that I have to take soil samples and possibly put down lime. I do know the basics of what type of corn to plant and how much fertilizer and such. Usually if the land has been idle for many years you can get a way with putting minimal fertilizer down as long as the PH is good for the first year.
I just have never thought of planting a bag of feed corn and was just wondering if anyone has had good or bad things to say about it.
I myself would put in soybeans becuase they bring in more money and you spend less putting them in the ground. In my neck of the wood farmers usually put 2 ton/acre lime down and plant beans. Then you just go in with a spray program for weeds and inscects. Beans are roughly $30 a bag verse at least $130 a bag for corn, plus lime, plus fertilizer, plus spray.
Right now corn is bringing about $5.45/bushel and soybeans are about $13.40/bushel.
So in all was just wondering if anyone planted feed corn with good results.

 

[rambler]

Nothing good will come of this.

80 acres is real land, you will spend a lot of fuel & time on this. If you go ahead, get paid for each step as you go. This fella will lose every penny he puts into it. There will be zero income in the fall.

Bagged corn will yield about 25 bu per acre if lucky. Seed corn for $100 a bag will yield 200 bu per acre.

Grass fields typically have a lot of insect problems for corn. As well very hard to kill the grass off & get a good seedbed for corn.

Corn is very sensitive to weeds. You 2 likely will wait until you see weeds before doing anything about them - way, way too late. Yields will be cut in 1/2.

Corn needs a lot of fert, esp N after a grass crop.

Corn following grass is a very difficult thing to do - much easier to grow soybeans into grass sod. Many details you have to do extra right to make corn work in this situation.

You are looking at a total & complete disaster.

If you have the time, do what he asks and have fun. Expect zero corn to be grown by fall. Get paid for each trip you make as you go - he will not have any income in the end and will stiff you if you wait until 'harvest' to get paid.

Do not do it for a portion of the income - there will be none.

Corn prices are dropping. Seed, fert, fuel, & herbicide has about doubled. Many buyers are no longer pricing corn ahead.

This could be fun for you if you understand what you are getting into, but there is no way the fella will ever make a nickle on this with his level of experience. No way.

--->Paul

 

[GT2]

Not about corn, but I've been reading about how some eth plants are favoring poplar.
Poplar is long term ( 6 to 10 y) but is very low maintenence compaired to corn ( so I've read).
Any comments?

 

[forgeblast]

I heard switchgrass showed much beter eth production vs the cost and amount you can grow. along with sugar beets, etc....i think there are so many people doing research on it now that each person wants to show they have the best system for producing it. Man if poplars where able to produce a lot i would have them take all mine. im in the process of girdling them now to stop them from taking over my hardwood lot. They are like weeds, between them and the thornapples i have a hard time figureing out which ones i hate more. (i think its the thornapples, they bite and scratch)

I have also seen where wheat and barley and not being planted. Many homebrewers are worried that the big boys will be gobbling up all the available malted barley.

 

[deereguy]

I have heard the same about switchgrass, I think corn has become popular is the availability to produce it, but it takes more bushels of corn to produce a gallon of ethanol than other sources. I am VERY concerned about the use of ethanol, so far one plant in Illinois has shut down and I feel we are producing more gallons of this stuff than we will use (ie flex-fuel vehicles), they are blending 10% with existing gasoline but increase that percentage and most vehicles in the US start running too rich and won't burn it clean. Also read where fire departments aren't crazy about ethanol because they can't put out a fire (water spreads it, foam heats it up, or something to that effect).

Now on the other hand- I am planting 38 acres of triple stacked corn this spring, fertilized (if weather co-operates) to potentially yield 200 bu/acre or more. Yep, its the $200/bag stuff, but figure at $3.50/bu at harvest, we should do ok.

Back to the original post and a question poses earlier- has anyone planted feed corn and how did it do?......I did plant (play) with a handful a few years ago, I had a JD 246? 2 row planter that I wasn't sure how it would do, so I tried feed corn, it emerged, grew, eared, then deer ate it. That was my experience...successful? At least I knew the planter worked.

 

[Redbug]

A few questions about seed corn...(since I am like JDeerKid, and don't know much about growing it)...

I have read that most of the newer strains of seed corn are sterile...that is you just can't harvest and save some, then plant it next year, right? Where/how is the seed grown for the farmers to plant? That is, how do they make the seed viable if the parents make sterile offspring? If you wanted to grow corn that is not sterile, what varieties are good, (and good to eat)? I know that you have to be careful with cross pollanization between varieties. How far away do they have to be safe from cross pollanization, (so you could get a good sampling of seed for the next season)...