The benefits of a late-season nutrient pass for corn crops

00:00 We're talking about packing on pounds to your corn crop, how you can do it and when you should do it. 00:03 I'm with Kevin Matthews, Matthews Family Farms here at his field day. In between raindrops we've got Tommy Roach 00:08 with Nature's Got a couple of different ears to show you, but the thing that you're most excited about is 00:12 you said he's not done. I said, whatcha talking about He's gonna make one more pass. And it's at what, where are we right now? 00:18 Yeah, about R three going into R four right Now. Yeah. When does this pass happen? 00:23 Well, whenever it dries up. Soon As And what's gonna be in that pass? So in the past will be potassium. 00:29 We'll be boron, we'll be zinc, we'll be copper, manganese, and iron. Okay. Micros with, with potassium. Why 00:37 Do we need this at the end? And how's it gonna add Test weight? So if you think about it, typically the, the most limiting 00:46 nutrient in corn plant is microbes. Yep. And at this stage, you're still actively taking up boron, 00:53 manganese, copper, and zinc. So that's why I say we're not done packing on nutrients right now. 00:59 I had a recording I did with you as Senda twins, Chad and the Temple, and they think that they should go out and still put a treatment on like when the combine 01:06 is starting at one end of the field. You're not there yet, but I'm not the farmer. Isn't that brown silk? 01:10 Yeah. Well, it's black silk. We're black Silk. So why, how is it that we're still adding 01:15 nutrients when we're this close to harvest? You're you're, you're what, three to four weeks away from harvest? 01:19 Yeah. We're, uh, no, we're, we're, we're a little further than that. Four to five weeks away from harvest. 01:24 Yeah. Yeah. Four to five. And so, so we got, this is a pro, this is a systems approach right here. This is where we got in furrow two to two. 01:33 And this in here is just, uh, nitrogen only. That's, that's right. There's, there's no extra anything on it. Pretty, pretty 01:39 Significant difference. Pretty. So this is a intense management. Intensive management. Yep. 01:43 Yesterday's style of management where you just did nitrogen By That's true. But, but 01:47 here's what's so interesting about this r this R four, R five pass that Tommy and I are talking about. You can take this right here 01:54 and pick up a lot of bushels with that, with that ear, even though it may not be as, as your best crop is. But we are also going to pack on all we can with this. 02:03 And what we're after is getting those, just those deep kernels. We're wanting to really just keep plumping 'em up 02:10 and putting the heavy starch in there. Yeah. I mean there's a noticeable difference there. So this, this has got the goodies on it. 02:18 This right here, it might've had the goodies on it. And let's say your crop was stressed out and during the time period 02:24 and it just couldn't fill out as good. But there's still opportunity right here with this late season pass to build them kernels. 02:31 Finish this fourth quarter strong. Put some money. But you're Not gonna do, you're not gonna, 'cause this is the one 02:35 we're doing as a trial to nitrogen only. Yep. This guy that's getting the, the, all the goodies is gonna get one more pass. 02:40 Yep. And you're telling me that it won't increase the kernel size, what we'll be having. Oh, It'll, it, it can keep, it'll be a deeper, 02:49 So you're saying the last pass, even this late five weeks before the combine runs and we still get a bigger kernel. 02:54 Well, it's not gonna shrink down as much. Okay. There's just more density in there and it can allow it to shrink. You're, 02:59 You're, you're gonna keep the potential that it's got right now. Test. It's not going to, okay. 03:03 Then talk to about test weight. What, what, what's realistic that between the, the one that doesn't get the goodies and the one that 03:08 does, are we talking a pound difference? Four pound difference? You're probably looking 57, 58 pound in a good case scenario right there. 03:13 And then we would expect to be 60 to 62 pounds with this. So it could be five pounds. So 03:18 add another four to five pounds. Yeah. And then that's significant. That's, that's big time. That's 03:22 What's five pounds over an acre amounts to how many bushels? Difference? Depends. Depends on how many Yeah. 03:28 At 200 bush On a bushel. Yeah. So you're talking about it's 200 bushel. You got a extra what? 03:32 Thousand pounds. A thousand pounds? Yeah. Uh, why do you expect to see, get me outta here. You know, you're, you're, you're doing this. 03:39 Is this gonna be something that you say every year you should do this as long as you have the precipitation. So one thing that, that I need 03:45 to mention is we're not just gonna apply micros and that's it. Yeah. It's going to ride with, in this case, 03:52 potassium acetate. Okay. Okay. So that's the carrier we want to pack. We want to pack micros into that 03:58 because it's got to have a vehicle to get into the plant. So instead of using just water Yep. 04:03 We're gonna use some fertility to help drive it into the plant. Got it. Stay tuned for more. 04:07 This is the big trial that we're doing. Pretty exciting stuff. Matthews Family Farms Field Day to next time. 04:12 Dave Mason coming at you of North Carolina. Time to get outta the rain. Let's grab an umbrella.