Download agronomic and test information: prosper

AGRONOMIC AND TEST INFORMATION: PRINCETON
TEST:
2008 Dryland Corn Performance Test
LOCATION:
Jackie McMahan Farm, Princeton, Texas
COOPERATORS:
Russell Sutton, David McMahan, and Jackie McMahan
SOIL TYPE:
Houston black clay
ROW WIDTH:
30"
PREVIOUS CROP:
Grain Sorghum
LAND PREPARATION:
Conventional tillage, disked twice and field cultivated
DATE PLANTED:
4-2-08: Planted flat with a belt planter mounted on JD MaxEmerge 2 Units.
PLOT LENGTH:
25.5'
FERTILIZER:
Applied 123+75+0+1qt/A Agro Culture Micro 500 banded 6” from
plants
HERBICIDE:
1 pt/A of Dual II Magnum
INSECTICIDE:
None, seeds were required to be treated with a seed insecticide
RAINFALL:
Was not recorded at the test site, but was wet during the early
part of the growing season and very dry during the later part of
the growing season.
DATE HARVESTED:
8-13-08 with a JD 3300 plot combine equipped with Grain Gauge
SIZE HARVESTED PLOT:
2 rows, 25.5' long
TEST DESIGN:
Randomized complete block
NUMBER ENTRIES:
42
NUMBER REPLICATIONS:
4
NUMBER ROWS/PLOT:
2
MEAN PLANT POP:
17,554 plants/A
TEST MEAN:
59.3 bu/A; yields corrected to 15.5% moisture
TEST C.V.:
12.81%
COMMENTS: This dryland site is representative of conditions located in the
Northern portion of the Texas Blacklands (Crop Reporting District 4). This was
the first year a corn performance test was conducted at this site. Due to
reallocation of land area at the research center near Prosper, the test was
moved to this site near Princeton. The Blacklands is a major corn producing area
in Texas. This year it is estimated that farmers in this District harvested 580,000
acres of Texas’ 2.1 million acres of corn, or 27.6%.
A total of 42 entries were submitted by 10 commercial companies and evaluated
at this site. Conditions were not favorable for maximum corn production. Due to
wet soil conditions, the planting date was delayed until April 2, which is
approximately two weeks later than the optimum planting date for this area.
Seedling emergence was good and early plant growth and development resulted
from available soil moisture and a timely application of fertilizer. However, as
most of the Texas Blacklands experienced, hot and dry weather conditions
persisted, thus rapidly depleting soil moisture. Continued hot and dry conditions
during the tassel-silk stage resulted in plant stress. Plant stress continued
through the grain fill stage thus reducing potential yields.
Due to the prolonged drought conditions, plant and ear heights were short as
reflected in the yield table.
The test mean yield was only 59.3 bu/A compared to 166.4 bu/A in 2007. Test
weights ranged from 49.6 lb/bu to 57.1 lb/bu with the mean being 52.0 lb/bu.
Lodging was not a problem in the test.