How important are seed genetics?
In a good year the seed genetics gets too much credit and in a bad year genetics gets too much blame. Kelly talks with Damian about the real limiting factors when growing corn.
00:00 So we're standing Kelly Garrett's field talking about variable rate seeding and more importantly genetics. Uh, Kelly says something pretty smart. He says, 00:10 you know what? In a good year, we've got abin buster. The genetics get a whole heck of a lot of credit in a bad year, the genetics don't get enough credit. And you said, I'm not sure that anymore. 00:18 The genetics with the seed companies that I plant are my limiting factor. We're gonna discuss that and variable rate seeding and the tough environment 00:26 that we're going through right now in the Midwest with so big, uh, of a moisture deficit. We got BJ Shaman with Integra Seed here to join us. 00:33 Those are the topics. Kelly, take me, take me, take me back here. When we said that very first thing, 00:38 seed gets too much credit and then it gets too much, uh, blame In a good year, the seed gets too much credit. In a bad year, 00:44 the seed gets too much blame. And the reason I say that, you know, this, this is Integra 55 29, 00:49 and I'm probably only gonna produce a, a third at best of what it's capable of, probably a fifth of what it's capable of. So in a good year, 00:57 we have not reached the potential. In a bad year, we're not gonna reach the potential, but the genetics are not to blame. There's other limiting factors that we need to come up with. 01:05 We need to manage more intensively from a fertility perspective, from a soil perspective to help this corn reach its potential. 01:12 The blame does not go on the corn to blame goes on us. We are the limiting factor. By the way, bj, uh, I I I mean you're the guy that gets the calls. Uh, 01:20 my corn sucks, my corn doesn't suck, and they always come to you. But there's a whole bunch of management practices that are going on here at 01:26 Extreme Ag that maybe other producers aren't quite adopting yet. So talk to me about what you see in way of, uh, 01:31 taking the blame away from the genetics and talking about things you can do to really, you know, bang, bang out the bin buster. 01:37 Well, thanks Damien. We are very excited to be partnered with extreme Ag because it is really about yield by environment and putting best management practices into place. 01:47 And when you think about, uh, some of the yield population studies that Kelly has done, and also the, the lowering of populations in bad areas versus good areas, 01:55 this is where we really get a chance to see where the, the product can, can perform or ca can't perform depending on the environment that it's in. 02:03 And when I think about a, a particular ear of corn, a lot of times you look at it, some farmers want to go with like a flex ear or determinate ear. 02:11 They maybe want the determinants they can push to the population every year. Year of corn is gonna flex out a little bit. 02:19 And the main thing is we're trying to drive home is bushels. And I'm very excited to be a part of this because the, 02:25 the studies that Kelly and others are doing, yeah, we're figuring out a way to try to drive to get the best out of each and every hybrid. 02:33 Bj um, I wanna talk about the variable rate thing because the cameraman can shoot over my shoulder. See up here we got a minimum of 25% slope. Uh, is that, 02:42 is that safe to say? 20 of all? Of 20 right there. Okay. All right. Yeah, 20 to 25% slope behind us. 02:48 So obviously that's gonna be lesser performing. And so when you do the variable receiving, I think it's interesting if we've talked about this, 02:54 the planner is set up to where we are right now. This is, this is good as it gets right here, this is very dark, it's not too much pitch. 03:00 And you go over there. How much does the seeding rate vary between here and going up that 25% slope? But I'm gonna still say 25%, even though you said it's 20. That's 03:08 Okay. The ultimate goal is to raise a half a pound of corn per plant. I believe that top end yield is six tenths of a pound. Mm-hmm. 03:16 We've surpassed that in some contest areas. Highly managed areas put on normal production corn, let's assume six tenths of a pound of grain per plant is a plus work. Yep. So I, 03:26 my goal is to plant a seeding rate of population to produce the goal a half a pound. Mm-hmm. Alright. So at 24,000, if you do the math mm-hmm. 03:36 That's 212 bushel corn. Mm-hmm. That's great. Corn. My rep, By the way, you're saying in a population, 03:41 a seeding population of 24,000 at a half a pound per stock. Yep. Well, actually not seeding at a successful germination rate of 24,000 at a half pound 03:50 equals 212 bushel corn. Yes. 56 bushel pounds. Yeah. Okay. Actually do that math for us. So the point is, 03:55 you would like to do better than two 12. And actually you're proven yield in this. I would love to do better than two 12. 04:00 The average proven yield that we have is about two 15. Mm-hmm. Okay. So that means even where I'm at, 24,000, it's probably too much down here. 04:08 It's 35,000. We range from 22 and a half to 35. I would like to go lower down to 20, maybe down to 18, because in some spots that's square foot of dirt, that's all it's gonna race. 04:21 I think at 20,000, if you do that math, it's like 178 bushel. Well, I can tell you up there on that slope, especially as dry as it is, 04:27 I'd be tickled with 170 acres far. Right. Right. You know, even though overall I'd like to raise two 30. Yeah. 04:33 But that's what I'm trying to do is raise a half a pound of grain. And this, this is especially important in a drier year because why do you wanna water all 04:39 that vegetation? More plants don't create more yield. Look at that square foot of dirt, what can it produce? And don't waste any seed or any new nutrients trying to produce more, 04:48 cuz it's not gonna happen. Okay. So let's talk about the jacks with you, bj, because obviously you've been in this business for a while. 04:53 We've all been around it for A while And we hear all the time, you know, but we're breeding stuff and we do what, 3, 3, 3 cycles a year. We go to South America or Hawaii or whatever. 05:01 And you know, you're, you're doing all these things, but the heck of it is you got a cut customer here, a farmer. And, and he's saying this is not somebody that's closed-minded, 05:09 that he's obviously doing some pretty cutting edge stuff. He's saying the genetics aren't by limiting factor. So why don't you just stop, 05:14 fool. Why don't you just stop trying? Why don't you just stop trying at Integra? Because you know what many of the genetics are good enough? 05:20 Well, you know, on behalf of genetics, they're always trying to improve. Right? We're, we're trying to figure out in certain areas, in certain pockets, the, 05:28 the, the globe is really our lab that we try to test all these genetics. So you can pull something out of a highly, uh, you know, 05:36 big area that's full of drought, right. And you try to cross it with something else. I I think that's always improving and we always need to do that. 05:42 But we also need to have some common sense behind that too is to what Kelly said before, my dirt, do I know it? Yeah. What am I gonna be for plant population? 05:51 The genetics are always going to be improving because we're pulling from different parts of the globe, right. 05:56 To try to find that one perfect hybrid for that one particular spot in the field in, you know, one hybrid across the entire field. 06:05 I could see multi hybrids really becoming a factor here in the future because we can, if we can find a hybrid that's perfect for that dirt, 06:12 we may not have it at Integra, I'm just gonna tell you that. But if you have multiple hybrids throughout the dirt, 06:18 the ranging of populations, I think we're on a, a key way to trying to break through and really maximize the most we can out of the dirt. 06:26 I disagree, but you know what, then we go from dirt, which aome of professionals called soil. We go from soil variation to then weather variation. 06:35 We are honestly getting killed right now. I'm surprised this corn looks this good. You said this is dryland corn. We have not had the rain. Uh, 06:43 is the next challenge now just all sorts of weather, uh, tolerance? It seems to me it is. I 06:49 It very much is. I think it Is. Okay. So you and I agree that the weather, the, if there's any genetic advancement, 06:54 it needs to be about weather tolerance because next year of this field you can, we could be standing here and we'd have to wear gum boots because it could be 06:59 like we had to wet a tune on record. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then the yield challenge becomes the oxygen in the soil, plant health, 07:06 et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. You know? Yes. All those things. There's always a challenge for this. And you know, 07:11 like those guys trying to improve their genetics, they need to I appreciate that because we're never gonna, we're never, we never stop trying to get better. Got it. 07:20 But BJ has brought me a product right here that I'm not reaching the potential of. 07:25 All right. So we pretty much are deciding that the future is, you're gonna go back to your research people, BJ and say, 07:30 Kelly tells me that the future is tolerance of all different weather conditions. So you're gonna tell the people that you gotta go to the r and d stuff folks at 07:36 Integra and say, you know what? Get on this. I do every day. You sound mad every day. What's your expected yield out here? To be honest, 07:43 In this corn, the way it looks, Yeah, it's June 22nd When we're, this is 105 day corn. I wanna take it out as September, you know, 2 22 20. 07:51 Yeah. And, and that's in a really, really difficult Environment. That's in a difficult environment. I'd be happy at two 20. I expect two 20. Got 07:57 It. Joseph have come a long way. This is my last point to you. And you know, we make the joke. You, you, you don't need to do anything more. Uh, 08:05 where do you see it going? You know, you're a future looking guy. Like when you say, you know what, I think, I think five years, 08:09 10 years from now, we're gonna look back and say, boom, this was it. Because, you know, we've been planting, we planting good corn for a long time. Yeah. 08:16 I, I believe we're gonna, we are making in incremental changes. I believe here, the research that Evans and I've been doing, 08:21 we're getting close to breaking the next yield barrier because of our research on the chemistry side, 08:26 the nutrient side that like you and I have talked about and I think we're close to, I think we're close to getting there. 08:31 Well too. Alright. His name's Kelly. Garren name's BJ Shaban. He is Integra. I'm Damian Mason for the extreme ag. You know what, we've talked to them before. 08:38 Come outta the class and a couple other times, go back. If you wanna learn more about sea, we cover it here@extremeag.farm. I'm sure this was somebody that can benefit from it. You know what? 08:45 Hundreds and hundreds of videos, podcasts, all to help your farming game. Extreme ag.farm.
Growers In This Video
See All GrowersKelly Garrett
Arion, IA