Pride Seeds market agronomist Ken Currah uses the term ‘troweled-in corn’ to describe a scene he witnessed too often during the 2016 planting season.
In this episode of Real Agriculture Corn School, he describes how planting corn into cool wet soils this spring was, in some cases, very similar to the act of troweling concrete.
“When you pour concrete, you’re using that trowel to pull moisture above the aggregate that’s in the concrete and get that nice smooth surface,” explains Currah. Growers can create this condition in a cornfield with heavy planter downforce and a high degree of closing pressure.
“When the corn planter pulls out of the field and you see that sheen across the traffic pattern … we’ve pulled up moisture, consolidated soil and created difficult soil conditions,” says Currah.
He explains that the likely result is compacted hatchet roots that lead to significant loss of yield potential.
Click here for more Corn School episodes.
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