March 10, 2019
Channel Seedsman Brady Bishop from Salem, Indiana, discusses how he works with growers to determine the correct planting rates for their fields.
Key Takeaways:
- One of the most important steps in determining the correct planting rate is to look at the product selection.
- If a farm is going to have a field of corn standing late into the fall, then it may be best to back the population off and consider using a timely fungicide during the growing season.
How do you work with growers to determine the correct planting rates for their fields?
Whenever I'm trying to help growers work before planting season to determine proper planting rates first off, I think it's very important to look at the product selection that we have for their farm. Some products prefer a thicker population versus others and on top of that, we have to look at nutrient levels, soil types, elevations, whether it's rolling ground, flat ground. There in Southern Indiana where I work at we have a very large variety of acres. So, products can vary a lot depending on the terrain that they're going on. Some conversations that I'll have with growers will be determining what type of nitrogen program you're going to have to make sure that you feed the product, to make sure if you are wanting to plant a higher population that you have adequate nutrients there for it. How timely a harvest they plan to have. If it's going to be a farm where it may be standing a little bit longer, we'll look at maybe backing that population off or supplying it with a fungicide, something along those lines, to make sure that we have adequate stock health for a late-season harvest.