[AT] Check planting

Thu Dec 27 11:40:56 PST 2007

A follow up. The increase in yield on the 4H plot was only marginally more
profitable due to the increase in seed and fertilizer costs. As I recall
corn prices were in the $1.50 per bushel region at the time.   I recall a
discussion at the time with my father that it was quite risky to add that
much additional cost per acre when on average we had a less than annual
average rainfall about every three years. Planting at this higher rate per
acre became very risky in poorer land as well. This was the 50's.  Today
that same land produces well over 200 to 250 bushels per acre in good years.
Using much higher seed density with a no-till procedure and heavy dosages of
commercial fertilizer and weed killer. It would be interesting to compare
the net profit today on that land with today's much higher yields but also
much higher machinery, fuel, seed, weed killer and fertilizer costs even at
the $3.00 plus per bushel corn prices today primarily due to so much of the
corn being diverted to ethanol production. Now I wish I had kept the records
from that 4H project to do a comparison. We worked the land to death in the
40's and 50's. Today, corn is planted between the old rows, fertilized,
commercial weed killer is used with no cultivating and then harvested. Man,
farming is different now. 

We were farming around 400 acres at the time but now an average farmer in
that area is farming over 1000 acres.  Lets say that 300 acres of the 400
were in corn production and the average yield was 50 bushel per acre. The
other 100 acres in a rotational crop. That would imply an annual income of
$15,000 to $20,000 which was needed to feed a family, buy fuel, seed,
fertilizer, insurance, clothes, and pay for $2,000 tractors plus implements
and cars. I guess that is why we milked, raised feeder cattle, chickens and
pigs to supplement the income. Every little bit helped. But it was a full
time job, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. Today's farmer only works a
couple months a year if they are strictly crop farmers and in climate
controlled tractor cabs.  To have that in the 50's would have been a true
luxury. At best we had one tractor that had a "Heat Hauser" on it.  Just a
little wind blockage and a few degree temperature improvement was very much
welcomed. Especially when it was 40 below. 

The last winter we spent in Iowa, 1961-1962, we had 26 days in a row where
it never got above zero degrees. Typical night time lows were -40 degrees
during that period. Then to add insult to injury we had snow so high we had
to tie flags to our car antennas so we could see cross traffic. Yes, cars
that stood outside in this weather would start in the morning. At least my
56 Crown Victoria Ford did. Sure wish I still had that car.  For some
reason, the next winter our home address was LaMesa, California!  :-) 

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

"He who makes decisions in haste repents at his leisure."

www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Dean Van Peursem
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 10:29 AM
To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
Subject: Re: [AT] Check planting

Len,

I have the same recollection of row spacing 40 or 42". We used check
planting in the 1940's and 1950's. I don't have a good recollection of how
many  kernels were dropped per hill but I would guess two to three. We
cultivated both ways, the third time, hillers (disc blades) were used to
hill the dirt around the roots to add additional stability as the corn grew
taller.   Check planting was used to control ground weeds and to keep more
of the upper soil surface closed to contain moisture until the corn got tall
enough to provide shade. Cultivating was never done at a 45 degree angle as
a simple geometry calculation will determine that the spacing isn't the same
at 45 degrees.  We were dry land farmers and we had to be a bit careful on
how many stalks per acre there were due to limited rainfall. 

As I recall in the mid 50's our corn crop yield was in the 50 - 60 bushel
per acre average for dry land farming in NW IA using only farm manure for
fertilizer and/or also crop rotation.  I recall running a 10 acre 4H plot in
the mid 50's, the best 10 acres of the whole farm, where the corn seeds were
drilled at a much higher rate on 40 or 42" rows and then side dressed with
liquid nitrogen as a test plot. The results were 80 bushels per acre which
was much higher than the typical local average. My father said I had grown
the best crop of foxtail he had ever seen. :-)

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

"He who makes decisions in haste repents at his leisure."

www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Len Rugen
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 9:55 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Check planting

I've never seen check planted corn, I've seen the equipment and used some of
it in "drill" mode.

I'd suspect the rows were way wider than 30", I seem to remember 42" as the
number, but CRS...   

What was "good" yield in the years after the dust bowl?  I'd say 40 bu/acre
might have been good in the 40's.  I would guess that there was a lot of
open pollenated seed planted.  We can still get that locally and it will do
OK.  I've planted 2nd gen hybrid (IE feed corn) for food plots and had good
looking corn.  I've planted open polliated corn as well.  

There was more than one seed per hill, the planter still "drilled" at
whatever rate, but the seed accumulated  until the knot on the wire tripped
it.  What commercial fertilizer was often applied with the planter
attachment.  Manure was used as far as it went.  After picking, cows were
turned in and hay even fed on the field for fertilizer (and weed seed...)  

Remember, they often picked this stuff by hand.  

Now there usually isn't anything over the field after the planter until the
combine.  

Len Rugen
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