Culpeper’s own corn growers top in the state

Standing on the Pamunkey river bottom in New Kent County last week, I gained some extra appreciation for no-till and for cover crops. I was attending a field day for government employees interested in these important techniques. Our governments are placing increasing emphasis on your adoption of additional conservation practices.

Paul Davis, county agent in New Kent, hosted this program for our benefit and has been leading a no-till program in his area for some time now. He and his father have cooperated with extension and other agencies to conduct field trials, demonstrations and research on their farm. Their sandy soils need more organic matter and the reduced erosion that no-till brings to their operation. Our Piedmont soils also benefit from these soil improvements brought by no-till. 

Each year corn growers enrolled in the state corn contest wait to see how yields turn out in New Kent on their no-till land where David Hula is a perennial favorite. This year Culpeper farmers took the top spots in Virginia. The state winner was Rosenberger Farms of Jeffersonton, placing first in the no-till division at 231.78 bushels per acre. Taking second place in the no-till division was Beauregard Farm of Brandy Station at 227 bushels per acre. Ashland Farm placed third in the minimum till category at 207.31 bushels per acre. This is the first time I can remember that our farmers did so well in the state contest. Congratulations on their hard work using no-till planting, improved hybrids, adequate fertility, good weed control, and thanks to Mother Nature for timely rains that put them over the top. 

Since we now know of local benefits from no-till farming, let me return to the field day experience and its other important topics that included Nitrogen management and cover crops. Long standing efficiencies have been found from applying Nitrogen in starter amounts at planting and then the final amount dribbled down the row middles with a sprayer. It typically takes about one pound of Nitrogen to produce a bushel of corn using this method, but I learned that if you knife in Nitrogen at side dress, you can grow a bushel of corn with 20 percent less Nitrogen or eight-tenths of a pound per bushel. This will pay!

Another innovation with Nitrogen management is the use of “Green Seeker” technology. An electronic eye measures green color of the corn crop and makes variable applications according to formulas set up to deliver Nitrogen where it will do the most good. You can grow the same crop using less Nitrogen with this technology. Expectations are that it too will pay for itself. 

And finally, cover crops are growing in their importance. It looks like there will be even more emphasis on having a cover crop on the land to help increase organic matter, to hold soil in place, to produce Nitrogen from legume covers and one day, to help farmers participate in the emerging carbon market. Maybe the cover crop you grow can have one or all of these values to your farming operation.