Anyone here have any thoughts on growing early season corn for picking? I would like to have a demonstration day, but of course fall harvest gets in the way, and with 4200 acres, we can't take days off, nor can our neighbors. So, if I plant short season corn EARLY, how early will it be? We typically plant 110-116 day corns, and I have located some 92 day and some 100 day corn from my Dekalb rep. Do you think it will work, or am I nuts?
Here is the middle of Mo. there is a few guys that will plant 90 day corn to get a just on harvest and some times it will out yield the longer season corn, all depend on how the rain hit.
As a seller of seed corn, even here in Wisconsin we are starting to plant later day corn varieties. I usually figure a bushel per day of variety, but that can lie at times as well. I wouldn't call it a poor rule of thumb though. I thought about voting for the 10 BPA TOTAL yield, but I just couldn't. You will definately see a reduction, otherwise you wouldn't be planting 113 day corn for your normal stuff, you'd be planting 92. Now, you can't ignore that today a 20 bushel difference is 100 bucks an acre, but for play day I don't think its that bad. Be the ultimate test plot to find out!!! I know one thing for sure, sometimes the best changes you make in an operation are because you were forced to do something you didn't want to do. Sometimes the best methods of planting and the best varieties of corn are discovered because there wasn't a choice.
I voted 10-20, but I know nothing about Missouri agriculture. My personal estimate would be 20 BPA, based really upon nothing. Make sure you have a picture hour during that picking day!!!