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“We no-till our soybeans into our corn stocks. We no-till our corn into our soybean stubble. We do not no-till our corn into our corn. So, if we go corn on corn, with the 20-inch rows, there's just a lot of trash to get through the planter. So it's not real feasible to get that much trash in that tight of an area. So that's, that's what we don't no-till. But otherwise we've been no-tilling for 20 years.
- Kyle Schomers
Kyle Schomers admits his 2021 plot was pushing it a bit. Schomers picked his best 10 acres and hit it with maximum nutrients in order to prep the ground for entry into the National Corn Growers Assn. (NCGA) Annual Yield Contest.
Farming as Schomers did on his contest acres for all of his property was “just not feasible.” Nevertheless, he harvested 322 bushels per acre on that selected land, good enough to win the non-irrigated NCGA category in Iowa.
Schomers’s story is one of several found in the pages of a new special report “No-Till Corn: Pushing the Boundaries of Yield Potential” issued by No-Till Farmer in October, and included as an insert in the October edition of the magazine, which profiles high-performance no-tillers in the National Corn Growers Association Annual Yield Contest.
Departed Executive Editor Julia Gerlach spoke with Schomers about his NCGA win, and more.
No-Till Farmer's podcast series is brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment.
Yetter Farm Equipment has been providing farmers with residue management, fertilizer placement, and seedbed preparation solutions since 1930. Today, Yetter equipment is your answer for success in the face of ever-changing production agriculture challenges. Yetter offers a full lineup of planter attachments designed to perform in varying planting conditions, multiple options for precision fertilizer placement, strip-till units, and stalk rollers for your combine. Yetter products maximize your inputs, save you time, and deliver return on your investment. Visit them at yetterco.com.
Full Transcript
Brian O'Connor:
Welcome to the No-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you today by Yetter Farm Equipment. I'm lead content editor, Brian O'Connor. On this week's episode of the podcast, departed executive editor Julia Gerlach speaks to Kyle Schomers of West Philly Iowa. Schomers harvested 322 bushels per acre in the 2021 National Corn Grower Association annual Yield Competition. That's good enough for first place. And NCGA'S non irrigated no-till category for Iowa. Schomers credits balanced nutrient application and timely rains for his win. Here's Julia's conversation with Kyle.
Julia Gerlach:
First and foremost, what do you think was the key to your winning corn yield in 2021? What do you attribute to that?
Kyle Schomers:
Luck.
Julia Gerlach:
Luck?
Kyle Schomers:
It just so happened that last year, we got timely rains. And when I went looking at all the fields before harvest, I said, "We would have around an APH type crop." So, 10-year proven history average is kind of where I thought it would be. And just doing kernel counts and ear sizes, that kind of thing. But the test weight was a lot heavier than what we thought it would be. So, those timely rains, they can add 30 to 40 bushels or more, and you won't even know it until you get into harvest. We tried to do everything right we could, as far as nutrients, and timing, and all that stuff, but you still got to have Mother Nature's help. And I think we did the nutrient part right, and she helped us out on the back end.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. Since you're talking about nutrients, can you run through what your program was?
Kyle Schomers:
On that plot or that where we did the entry, we did about 150 pounds of phosphorus and 120 pounds of potash in the fall, the fall before.
Julia Gerlach:
Broadcast?
Kyle Schomers:
That was just broadcast spread. And then, we put about 180 pounds of anhydrous on in the fall. And then, in the spring we put on 20 gallons an acre or 70 units of 32% liquid nitrogen. And that went on with the planter. And it's just dribbled on top of the ground behind the row or off to the side of the row. And then, we put five gallons of an 8-19-3 starter on with it. And then, we use a biological called Ultra, it's an organic biological that we put a quart per acre on. That's what we did for our fertility. We didn't Y-Drop. We're 20 inch rows. So, for us, Y-Drops really aren't real feasible because even though where we put this National Corn Growers entry is a nice flat piece of ground, we don't have a lot of flat piece of ground. So, Y-Drops just don't work for us in our hills. The 30-inch guys can do it, but 20-inch rows, you damage too much. That's pretty much what we did fertility wise on that.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And that biological, the Ultra, do you know what's in that biological?
Kyle Schomers:
I'm not real scientific, so I don't all the names, but it is organic, so it's just made up of a lot of... I don't even know how they do it, but we've been using it for about six years and we've lagged the results, so we just kept with it. It's by AgriGro, it's called Ultra.
Julia Gerlach:
And you said that all goes on with the planter also the biological?
Kyle Schomers:
Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Yep. [inaudible 00:04:22] with the starter.
Julia Gerlach:
So you're not doing any side dressing at all?
Kyle Schomers:
No.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. Interesting.
Kyle Schomers:
No side dressing.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
We're 20 intro corn and it's just too hard to get. It's too hard to follow rows with tire sizes and our hills and contours. You damage too much crop by trying to get down the rows.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
So all of our nutrients go on either pre-plant or with the planter.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Okay. And are you using RTK steering at all or no?
Kyle Schomers:
We are, yep.
Julia Gerlach:
But you still can't do it. That's interesting.
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, I mean you got 20 inches in between each row and most of the tire sizes are 18, so.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh. Way too close.
Kyle Schomers:
It's too tight of a margin. Yeah.
Julia Gerlach:
I see. Okay. When you were talking about the starter with a 32%, is that a two by two configuration?
Kyle Schomers:
So the starter is a 8-19-3 and that goes in furrow, and then the 32% is a two by two out the back, so it actually just lays it on top of the ground.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay, right.
Kyle Schomers:
Two inches above the seat and two inches to the side.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And then, so the potash and phosphorus are broadcast in the fall and the anhydrous, is that knifed in or something?
Kyle Schomers:
Knifed in. Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And do you have any kind of special, do you do anything like a stabilizer or anything with it or anything?
Kyle Schomers:
We didn't on that farm, nope. It was just straight anhydrous.
Julia Gerlach:
And how big of a plot is it that you use for the contest?
Kyle Schomers:
Oh, I think we did 10 acres and you harvest an acre and a quarter and then, so it's real small, but we did 10 acres and tried to pick out the part of it.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay, yeah. Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
I don't think you could farm that way for everything, just not real feasible, but...
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Right. And then, I guess I'm curious how different is your nutrient strategy for these acres compared to the rest of your acres?
Kyle Schomers:
So it's not a lot different. I mean, we put the starter, the 32, the anhydrous, all of that goes on all the other acres. The P and K does as well. When you have a lot of different soil types and some soils can... The more you feed it, the more it'll do other soil types, you gotta to know how much you can feed it without, if you try to feed it too much, it only will do so much.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
At some point you're wasting fertilizer, you're wasting money. If it was as easy as just keep pushing and everything out there and it keeps producing more, then you would probably do it. But at some point it just caps and it just doesn't produce any more.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay, gotcha. Are you doing variable rate fertilizer on the rest of your farm?
Kyle Schomers:
Yep. We variable rate are P and are K and even our anhydrous, that particular piece we did not variable, the anhydrous which it was all what I would call some of our best dirt. It was getting a bigger, most of our variable rate stuff is getting 160 to 180 pounds. And this was probably closer to 190 actually.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Since it was a contest, we were trying to push it a little bit.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Have you entered the contest before?
Kyle Schomers:
We entered it the year before. Yeah, and I think we got seventh.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. All right. Very good.
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, since we were in the top 10 we thought, "Well, let's try it again."
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Oh, good. And then, that particular plot, that ground that you did the contest acres on, what did you grow the year before?
Kyle Schomers:
Soybeans.
Julia Gerlach:
Soybeans. Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
And has doing this helped you learn anything in particular about your crops or the land's potential or what is the biggest takeaway that you have learned that could be applied across your fields?
Kyle Schomers:
I mean, we've always known that certain parts of fields have a lot of potential compared to other parts. Honestly, I've really, other than the year before when we first tried it, I didn't even know what it took to... I didn't even know how many acres you had to do. it was just kind of a, "Let's just try it and see." Because we knew we had spots that could crank out some pretty big numbers, but once you harvest it, I think you've got to have it all entered beforehand.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
I don't know, I guess we never thought about doing it, and then, someone asked me if we would try it. It was a seed company that asked if we would try it. We did. I think we're doing a lot of things right as far as variable rating and that kind of stuff, but maybe there's a few more spots in our farm that we could maybe up those levels to achieve some higher numbers. But there's enough spots in our farms that you couldn't do this program on all of it just because you're chasing dollars that probably aren't there.
Julia Gerlach:
Sure. Right? On the hilltops or something like that.
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah. Maybe this certain side hills and which we do try to treat those areas. We try to buy some. We don't feed cattle, but we've got a neighbor that has a feed line, so we'll buy some manure and spread those areas that are a little bit thin and that does help. But that's probably the biggest thing.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. So the contest acres, did they get any manure at all?
Kyle Schomers:
They did get a little bit of manure and that was probably, and maybe that was attributed to why the number was so big, because typically it's a piece of ground that is high in P and K or has good levels of P and K, so we don't have to bring in manure to bump those levels up. We just did it because we knew we were going to join that or enter that contest. We thought, "Well, let's put a little bit on just to try or see if we get a little bit of bump." And I believe it did, but the manure is pretty expensive so it'd be hard to justify that and you wouldn't be able to get enough to do all your acres. It's feed's not big enough.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, I see. Okay. And when did you apply the manure?
Kyle Schomers:
It was probably right after harvest. The year before.
Julia Gerlach:
The year before. I see. Oh, okay. And when you are figuring out your nutrient, what you're going to apply, in the case of the contest acres, did you take the nutrient analysis of that manure into consideration or was that just sort of bonus?
Kyle Schomers:
I think it was just bonus because it was just kind of on a whim, "Let's give a little bit of manure before winter." We knew when we planted it would kind of work it in a little bit. Rains would snow, would kind of help work it in.
Julia Gerlach:
Sure. And do you remember how much manure you applied?
Kyle Schomers:
Oh, it was probably 10 ton an acre.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. what's your process on how to figure out what to try for next year?
Kyle Schomers:
I mean obviously that was a pretty good year, so we did a lot of the things the same this year. Seed selection's another thing that you got to have a hybrid that can run, a Racehorse type hybrid. There can be 10, 15, 20 bushels just in the hybrid, but you got to also try to pick a hybrid that is going to withstand some of the elements that we get, such as high winds and periods of no rain.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah.
Kyle Schomers:
Because we had those last year too.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, sure.
Kyle Schomers:
We went three, four weeks at a time where we would get rain, and then, you'd get enough just to keep it going. So thinking hybrid is probably what I focused on more this year.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about your hybrid. Obviously you were going for the Racehorse Hybrid of some sort. Can you remember what exactly caught your eye about that particular one? And I know I haven't noted here what you used
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, so last year we used a Wyffels 7696 and we've used that hybrid for probably three years. It's a really good hybrid, but it has to be managed very closely because when it reaches maturity and it starts to dry down, it starts to dry down really fast. And when it dries down really fast and it gets down to between 20 and 22%, it really wants to cannibalize the stock does. And then, if you get any 20 mile hour wind will blow it over.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, interesting.
Kyle Schomers:
You have to get it out before it gets to that point. And when you're busy doing soybean harvest, sometimes you just don't get to it in time. We happened to get to it I think right in time because it was just about to the point you could go around and you could pinch the stocks and there was hardly anything left of them. It was to the point where it was about ready to go over and we harvested it, I think around 21 or 22%.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
But that's a hybrid where I think you get a lot more yield if it's harvested at 26 or 7%.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
But we have a grain dryer so we can handle high moisture corn.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. And what was your plant and harvest dates?
Kyle Schomers:
Believe it was planted on the 29th of April and it was harvested like the 17th of October.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. I'm curious, does the contest stipulate anything about plant date, harvest date or harvest moisture?
Kyle Schomers:
I don't know if it says if you have to be below 25% or anything like that.
Julia Gerlach:
I'll have to look at the rules.
Kyle Schomers:
I didn't worry about that part.
Julia Gerlach:
Gotcha. Okay. All right. In the last three years, in what area did you most push the envelope? Like nutrients or selecting hybrids or?
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, I would say technology probably.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, so what do you mean by that?
Kyle Schomers:
Going to hydraulic down force on the planter, roll by row, liquid technology where you can monitor each row individually. We've done seed shutoff for 12 years so that's something we've already had done, but I think adding the hydraulic row by row downforce was probably our biggest yield increase.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
We got from that.
Julia Gerlach:
Did you see much more even emergence or something from that?
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, a lot more even emergence.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And so, was that just something you verified visually or did you have some other way of measuring that?
Kyle Schomers:
We verified it visually, and then we have our agronomist that also told us our stands were better.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay, very interesting. Was that precision planting that you [inaudible 00:17:13]?
Kyle Schomers:
Yes. Yep. Last year we had precision planting. This year we traded our planter. This year we're a John Deere.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Their version of it.
Julia Gerlach:
I see. Okay. Because last year you used a John Deere 1795?
Kyle Schomers:
Yep. Last year we had a John Deere 1795 that had all precision planting parts on it.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
This year we have a John Deere 1795 that has all John Deere parts on it.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And why did you make that switch?
Kyle Schomers:
I just felt like every three years, depending on how many acres you farm, but for us, you put 2,500 acres on a planter, in three years, it's time to start fixing the planter up. We always look at trading whether we do it or not. Sometimes we don't, sometimes we just fix the parts and this just happened to be a year where we decided to trade it.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
We did use some of our seed reps and fertilizer reps as far as their input on what they've seen, and then, our agronomist asking him, "Is there one that's better than others as far as precision John Deere?" And the answer we kept coming back to was, "They're pretty equal."
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
So we felt comfortable doing it.
Brian O'Connor:
We'll get back to Julie's talk with Kyle Schomers in a moment. First, I want to thank our sponsor, Yetter Farm Equipment. Yetter Farm Equipment is your answer for success in the face of ever-changing production agriculture challenges. Yetter offers a full lineup of planter attachments designed to perform in varying planting conditions. Yetter products maximize your inputs, save you time, and deliver return on your investment. Visit them at yetterco.com. And now back to Julia and Kyle.
Julia Gerlach:
So, the John Deere 1795 that you used last year, you said 20 inch rows and how many rows were you running?
Kyle Schomers:
24.
Julia Gerlach:
24, okay. And then, what was your planting population on the seed?
Kyle Schomers:
It was 35,000.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. So, you didn't have a whole lot of loss.
Kyle Schomers:
No.
Julia Gerlach:
Good.
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah.
Julia Gerlach:
Nice. Do you have a specific equipment dealer that you work with by the way?
Kyle Schomers:
We mostly work with Van Wall. Our local dealer was Horizon Equipment and Van Wall bought them out. So Van Wall has like 35 stores in Iowa, so we can go 15 miles in any direction and run into one.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. Gotcha. That's nice. Was there anything about your equipment setup that you did last year that worked really well? I mean, aside from the down pressure that you already talked about or is there anything that didn't work and you just decided, "We're not going to do that again."
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, I think we liked everything that we had on our planter. Nothing that didn't work. I do like we were running our liquid nitrogen out the back on top. I like the idea of the new technology that's out that would knife it in the gauge wheel area. I like that technology. I just haven't bit the bullet on the price and put it on yet.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah, right.
Kyle Schomers:
I really like the technology of the automated closing wheel systems that are out there as far as they're ran with air and they're automatically changed on the go as far as what the conditions tell it to. And I like that technology a lot, especially when you get in a year like this year where you had more moisture during planting than normal and if you don't get that sidewalk compaction broken up, that can hinder your yield. I really like that technology. I'm kind of using this last year and this year as my watch it close and pay attention and I might do it for next year.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay, gotcha. Can you just walk me through what is on the row units?
Kyle Schomers:
So the row unit has this, the standard row unit, and then we've added the row by row liquid fertilizer for the starter, which is in furrow. And then, for the nitrogen, which is tubed out the back behind the closing wheel. We changed the closing wheel from the standard rubber wheel to schlegel.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Closing wheel. I do like those. I think they do a good job.
Julia Gerlach:
And there's two of them?
Kyle Schomers:
And they kind of have a curve tying that helps dig that compaction out or break it up.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. So do you think row cleaners?
Kyle Schomers:
We do have row cleaners. Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
It's a disc opener?
Kyle Schomers:
Double disc opener. Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Yep. And then, the hydraulic downforce, the row units are all electric, so there's no chains. It's all electric now. Technology's great when it works, when it doesn't, you pull your hair out.
Julia Gerlach:
Right.
Kyle Schomers:
It's just part of it.
Julia Gerlach:
Thus the short look you got there. Yeah.
Kyle Schomers:
Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
Did you guys have some issues last year?
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, thankfully we didn't... Well we're putting that plot in, but later on in the planting season, we had a wiring harness that was giving us fits that took us a couple days to find the problem, but that was played into the part while we traded it. It was just getting some age on it.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. So what were you experiencing? What was telling you that something wasn't working?
Kyle Schomers:
It wasn't letting one row plant for whatever reason.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
And it ended up being as simple as we unplugged the wiring harness that plugged into the rows fertilizer controller and when we did that, it let the rogue plant and we don't know why. It really doesn't make any sense. But it took us a long time to figure that out.
Julia Gerlach:
Wow. Yeah, that would be maddening.
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. Let's see. So how many years have you been no-tilling and how did you get into no-tilling?
Kyle Schomers:
No-tilling? We've been doing it for probably 20 years.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay.
Kyle Schomers:
We no-till our soybeans into our corn stalks. We no-till our corn into our soybean stubble. We do not no-till our corn into our corn. So if we go corn on corn, the 20 inch rows, there's just a lot of trash to get through the planter, so it's not real feasible to get that much trash in that tight of an area, so that's what we don't no-till.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
But otherwise we've been no-tilling for 20 years.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. Yeah, I've heard that a lot. Can't do that, corn on corn and [inaudible 00:25:41]
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, it's just tough.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. What led you to start no-tilling 20 years ago?
Kyle Schomers:
I mean, anytime you do a lot of tillage, you get a hard pan, you have roads that just have a tough time getting below it. Plus the benefits of saving fuel. Labor's not exactly easy to come by anymore, so finding the time to do it, I mean those were the biggest reasons, but the hard pan issues we were having was kind of the biggest thing.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
Just that much tillage is the ground needed a break and we were experiencing better yields, no tilling than we were tilling. We quit all the tillage.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, good.
Kyle Schomers:
That's plus less erosion.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. So do you feel like you've gotten past those hard pan issues now after having been [inaudible 00:26:47]
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah. And every once in a while we still go in and deep rip fields, but we do it a lot less often.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
Maybe once every seven or eight years instead of every other year type of thing.
Julia Gerlach:
And why do you do that? What makes you feel the need to do that?
Kyle Schomers:
I mean, if you just take a probe and probe into the ground, you can tell, especially the probes that are electronic, they'll tell you how many pounds it's taking to get through it. And if you get those spots where it's taken couple, two, 300 pounds to get through it, it's time to loosen it up.
Julia Gerlach:
Gotcha. Yeah. So did you have any mentors or anything when you started no-tilling? Was there anything the area who was helping you guys out or?
Kyle Schomers:
We have an agronomist. We've used him for the last, I think we were his first customer 25 years ago. I mean he's helped us a lot.
Julia Gerlach:
So, what generation are you on the farm by the way?
Kyle Schomers:
Fourth.
Julia Gerlach:
Fourth. Okay. So do you have your dad's still involved or anything?
Kyle Schomers:
My dad is still involved. He's every day getting closer to retirement.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
But he still likes to help in the busy season. This time of year he likes to golf and that kind of travel, that kind of thing. But in the fall he still wants to be in the combine or in the tractor.
Julia Gerlach:
Sure. Yeah, nice.
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah.
Julia Gerlach:
Go ahead.
Kyle Schomers:
My uncle as well, they're brothers and they farmed for years and so.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
I'm the next one behind them.
Julia Gerlach:
Very cool. And did any of your forebears have off farm jobs at all or has it all been... Y'all have able to make a living from the farm?
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, I mean they had a lot of livestock years ago, 15 to years ago and before that they had a lot of cattle, a lot of hogs. So when I went to college and after college got a job, and then, I came back when they had got out of livestock and they were starting to slow down a little bit.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
So we haven't worked off farm jobs since then.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And no livestock currently?
Kyle Schomers:
Nope.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Nope. We will feed some cattle at the neighbors feed lot, but not, we don't have our own feeding facilities anymore.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And then, what do you do with them after? You just sell them off after you've gotten them back?
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
And I don't think I asked, what is your overall acreage on the farm?
Kyle Schomers:
About 2,500.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. And then, you told me about... Oh, so you're not doing any micronutrients?
Kyle Schomers:
So, well I guess micronutrients, we do have one in our starter. We add some zinc to it.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay.
Kyle Schomers:
8-19-3.
Julia Gerlach:
Plus some zinc?
Kyle Schomers:
Yep.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Some zinc. We do add some sulfur broadcast, we [inaudible 00:30:23] that. But I mean once in a while if we see a need we'll throw some on.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. But for your contest acres in particular, did you do that last?
Kyle Schomers:
It would've been that we would've added like the zinc and the sulfur.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
The zinc was part of the starter mix and the sulfur was in our phosphorous mix.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. So that was broadcast in the fall. Do you remember how much of that was put on?
Kyle Schomers:
I would would say probably 30 pounds, 40 pounds, something like that.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. And do you remember how much zinc was with your starter?
Kyle Schomers:
I think it's like .5, so you could say it was an 8-19-3, 0.5.
Julia Gerlach:
I see. What about weed insect and disease control methods? What did you use for that plot?
Kyle Schomers:
So, we would spray our pre-emerge, like Keystone® LA, we spray that in the spring before plant, and then, we'll come back with our post. And our post last year consisted of Roundup, Callisto, Atrazine, that would be our weed control insects. We didn't use any insecticide with the seed. We put the fungicide on with the airplane after tassel and we put insecticide in with it.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Mostly that's to try to control corn, root corn beetles for the next year.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
But the traits that the hybrid has and the seed treatment is enough to get us through most of the insects.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay. What is the seed treatment?
Kyle Schomers:
So I'm trying to remember what Wyffels... Well it's a double pro hybrid. So they use, it's all above ground traits, which it controls corn board. I can't remember what products they have on theirs, but it's just a standard rate, nothing over top.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay, gotcha. And then, do you grow cover crops at all?
Kyle Schomers:
We haven't gotten into cover crops yet. We do grow alfalfa, but that's its own crop and we leave it in for four years, so that be the only crop that we use besides corn and soybeans.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah. Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Currently.
Julia Gerlach:
Do you go to corn after soybeans, I mean after alfalfa?
Kyle Schomers:
After alfalfa we usually go corn. Yeah.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
Maybe even two years of corn.
Julia Gerlach:
Oh, okay. So any thoughts on doing cover crops?
Kyle Schomers:
I've been looking into it. We had a bad experience probably 10 years ago with rye and getting it killed. I've looked into rye ahead of soybeans and a lot of people like what it's doing. I just haven't tried it. We just are gun shy from our bad experience 10 years ago. We just had a hard time getting it killed and we felt like it robbed nutrients from the corn crop, which I think there's other cover crops that we could use ahead of corn instead of rye.
Julia Gerlach:
Right. Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
But currently we haven't done it but we are looking into it.
Julia Gerlach:
And then how do you go about measuring costs, profit and ROI?
Kyle Schomers:
I guess I'm big into putting budgets together before the year and having targets as far as price targets and having those orders working because if you don't, a lot of times you don't make the sale because when the market's going up, you think it keeps going up type of mentality. If you know what your break evens are and where you are happy with profits and you make those sales when they get there, then you won't regret it type of thing. But sticking to a budget and always having that in the back of your mind when you're making sales is key. Try not to overspend, try not to buy anything unless it's a necessity.
Julia Gerlach:
Right. Okay. So is there anything in particular you're hoping to try out either in 2023 or 2024?
Kyle Schomers:
Like I said, on that automated closing wheel system, I like that, but it comes with a hefty price tag, so I want to see what some of these plots do as far as with it. Some have it with it, some have it without it. I want to see how that looks. And when you're looking at something that's that expensive, how fast is it going to pay for itself type of thing.
Julia Gerlach:
Yeah, I see. Okay. Yeah. Do you have a guideline for that in terms of how fast you would need it to pay for itself in order to see it as a oil purchase?
Kyle Schomers:
Yeah, I mean I feel like the equipment, those type of parts wear out in five years or so, so I like to get it paid for within two so that you have two or three years of bonus or gravy.
Julia Gerlach:
Sure, okay. So what do you do that's unique from our no-tillers?Anything in particular? Planting speeds, tissue sampling, anything in particular products?
Kyle Schomers:
We do tissue sampling, so we'll tissue sample ahead of when the fungicide is applied and if the crop is needing of something, then we'll add it to the fungicide because when we're tissue sampling, the crop's too tall for us to get through it with any machine.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
We will aerial apply that. I think paying attention to where you're at fertility wise, because it's all about balance, it's about balancing because you can have really high in one nutrient, really low in the other nutrient and you just have to have a good balance and our agronomist has helped us with that a lot. Adding sulfur the last few years has helped a lot. I believe the variable rate has helped a lot. Instead of just going out there and blanketing whatever. I feel like timing and different applications, do some at [inaudible 00:38:38] and some with the planter has helped. it's kind of a combination between all that stuff. Equipment, making sure your equipment's in the right shape and timing. We try not to plant. Everybody's out planning, but the ground is telling you, you should wait a day, then you wait a day, that type of thing.
Julia Gerlach:
I guess the only other thing I didn't ask, what is your soil type in that contest plot?
Kyle Schomers:
It would be Marshall Soil.
Julia Gerlach:
Okay.
Kyle Schomers:
So in our area, Marshall's kind of the best of the best.
Julia Gerlach:
I see.
Kyle Schomers:
Okay. So, I mean that's the reason why we picked that spot.
Julia Gerlach:
Right, gotcha. Okay. And are you fortunate to have a lot of Marshall on your farm or just in specific places?
Kyle Schomers:
I wouldn't say we have a lot. We probably have, 20% is Marshall. We have a lot of Monona Soil, which is still good, not as good as Marshall, but still good. If you could have your whole farm in Marshall Soil you would, but it just doesn't exist.
Brian O'Connor:
That's it for this week's episode. We'd like to again thank our sponsor Yetter Farm Equipment for helping to make this No-Till podcast series possible. If you like today's discussion, the full take on Kyle Schomers' approach to High Yielding No-Till Corn is available on our website as part of the No-Till Corn: Pushing the Boundaries of Yield Potential Special Report. It's all about No- Tillers who participate in and win the NCGA Annual Yield Contest. Just visit our store tab for a description and a consider purchase. A link can also be found on this episode's webpage. More podcasts about No-Till farming are available over at no-tillfarmer.com/podcasts, that's no hyphen tillfarmer.com/podcasts.
Transcript of this episode will be available there shortly. Subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have any feedback on today's episode, please feel free to email me at B-O-C-O-N-N-O-R@lessitermedia.com or call me at (262) 777-2413. You can also keep up on the latest No-till Farming News by registering online for our No-Till Insider Daily and weekly email updates and Dryland No-Tiller E-newsletter. And be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter
For our entire staff here at No-Till Farmer. I'm lead content editor, Brian O'Connor. Thanks for listening and keep it no-till.
