Ready, Set, Variable Rate Population Here We Go!

May 7, 2013 ~ Variable Rate Corn Population:

Yesterday was a sunny and successful variable rate planting day at Blythe Brae Farms in Oxford County. Greg Stewart and I created a normalized multi-year corn yield map (6 corn years in total) and then simplified the normalized yield map into 3 zones: low, medium, and high. Next the management zones were converted into a variable rate population map with 3 rates: 30,000 | 34,000| 38,000 seeds/ac assigned to the low, medium and high yielding zones respectively. Three replicated uniform rates were also placed strategically across the fields to examine yield response across all the zones from the multi-year corn analysis. Stay tuned for more precision agriculture news as the season unfolds!

The above monitor show the map of the field that will be planted at 3 different populations of corn. The red areas in the above map will be planted at 30,000 seeds/ac, the yellow areas will be planted at 34,000 seeds/ac and the green areas will be planted at 38,000 seeds/ac. — The above monitor shows the map of the field that will be planted at 3 different populations of corn. The red areas in the above map will be planted at 30,000 seeds/ac, the yellow areas will be planted at 34,000 seeds/ac and the green areas will be planted at 38,000 seeds/ac.

Project Background: The Oxford Soil and Crop Improvement Association (SCIA) was a Water Resource Adaptation and Management Initiative (WRAMI) funding recipient from Farm and Foodcare. Blythe Brae Farms volunteered two fields for research trials. OMAF and MRA specialists are assisting Oxford SCIA with two precision agriculture project objectives that increase producer preparedness in managing low and excess water conditions:

site-specific nitrogen management in corn to reduce the potential of N leaching
site-specific corn population strategy to improve water use efficiency and address soil moisture field variation effectively