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“When it comes to a truth, this year in Nebraska, it's been kind of up and down. We started off probably the driest we've ever been and since 2012. You go around and you can see which fields were no-tilled, which ones were strip-tilled on those dryland corners or even dryland fields. Conventionally tilled fields are completely burned up, and they're not going to make any corn. And you can see a no-till field across the road looks way better than it should for as dry as we have been.”
— Jared Kenney
On this week’s episode of the No-Till Farmer Podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Associate Editor Noah Newman talks to Jared Kenney of Amherste, Neb.
Kenney finished second in the National Corn Growers’ Association Annual Yield Contest for Irrigated No-Till in Nebraska. Kenney has had a series of good years prior to his finish, which yielded 321.8 bushels per acre. He lists expert advice, the right irrigation system, and technology as the keys to success.
Kenney’s story is one of several found in the pages of a new special free downloadable 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.
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 by Yetter Farm Equipment. I'm lead content editor, Brian O'Connor. On this week's episode of the podcast, associate editor Noah Newman speaks to Jared Kenney of Amherst, Nebraska. Kenney harvested about 322 bushels per acre in 2021. Good enough for second place in the National Corn Growers Association's irrigated no-till category for Nebraska in the annual yield contest. Kenney credits balanced expert advice and precision technology for his performance. Here's Noah's conversation with Jared.
Noah Newman:
Jared Kenney, thanks for joining us today. Before we get into the nitty gritty of your operation, just kind of introduce yourself to our audience. Tell us where you're located and give us the basics of your operation.
Jared Kenney:
Located on a family farm here in central Nebraska, right outside of Amherst, Nebraska. Just up in the hills, out of the Platte River Valley. Been back on the operation for, oh, it's 12 years now. Went to school in Lincoln and came back to the family farm and joined my dad and brother on the farm operation where we have corn, beans, [inaudible 00:01:25] wheat. We also have some cows. We have a cow calf operation as well.
Noah Newman:
Looking at the numbers from this past year, 321 bushels. That put you in the top three in the no-till irrigated category in Nebraska. National average is 177 bushels per acre, so you nearly doubled that. What was the key to that yield and what do you attribute it to?
Jared Kenney:
Oh, I guess a lot of it comes with the technology that we get these days, with the hybrids and the ability to irrigate out here. We have the aquifer that's be able to pump water whenever we need it, and crucial times to irrigate is probably the most important. And then the long term stability of the soils and just maintaining the soil to the point where it could produce the crops and give us what we need to get those high yields every year.
Noah Newman:
Now was this the best year you had or have you had one that topped this ever?
Jared Kenney:
As a whole, across the whole operation, I don't know if it was quite the top year. The last couple years have been one and two, but as a whole, across the whole operation, we were very pleased with the irrigated and the dry land yields we had.
Noah Newman:
And throughout this entire process, is there anything specifically you've learned about your land or land's potential? And just what's been your biggest takeaway?
Jared Kenney:
Biggest takeaway, I would say, is every year's different. You could do the same thing year over year and have a different yield on the same field every time, and you didn't change one thing. Biggest thing is just managing it throughout the year, changing your practices wherever you see fit, get that yield that you're going for.
Noah Newman:
Here's a question for you. So over the last three years, in what area would you say maybe you pushed the envelope the most on? Anything come to mind?
Jared Kenney:
I'd say our corn yields the last few years have just really pushed the envelope between the hybrids, and I think we'd get a very favorable growing season compared to some of them in the past, where we're very dry. We get some rains here and there to get the dry land where we need it. And then those hot dry July, August where we're able to put a good amount of water on really helps to grow that corn and give us that extra bushel that we need.
Noah Newman:
Let's talk about equipment. Is there anything you've done different recently with equipment setups? Or what's your equipment look like?
Jared Kenney:
We're always updating the planters. We do quite a bit of update on the planters every year. We run a lot of precision stuff on our planters to be more accurate on the seed placement, depth, making sure we're putting that seed in a good seed bed in an accurate depth, so we get good even emergence. And the emergence is probably the key. It's getting everything out. And with no-till, if you don't have the right equipment to move the trash, it makes it very uneven emergence when you're coming out of the soil and that just hurts your yield at the end of the year.
Noah Newman:
And what kind of planter do you use and have you had the same one for a while or?
Jared Kenney:
We've got a John Deere 1770 24 row that we run, and this is the second year with it. Then we plant our beans in a 15 inch no-till situation there. Our goal with the beans is to get a better cover to preserve some moisture in the soil and get a little faster shade on the weeds. Get the weed barrier going a little sooner.
Noah Newman:
So what does your nutrient management plan look like for your high yielding corn?
Jared Kenney:
To be honest, we treat our corn growers plots exactly like I'd treat any other acre. That field, in general, was probably one of our better yielding fields that I've ever had. We averaged over 300 bushels across the whole field the first time we'd actually done that. But when I'm looking at a corn grower's plot, I want to be able to replicate that across the rest of my acres too. So if we can do that on a corn grower's plot, we try to do that across all the acres because if we can still be profitable on a nutrient management side of it and grow that kind of crop, that's what we're after.
Noah Newman:
And do you use any micronutrients?
Jared Kenney:
We haven't done too much on the micronutrient side of things.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha, gotcha. How many acres was the award-winning plot?
Jared Kenney:
Well, I think we harvested, it's like five acres that we did it on. We did two different plots, and both of them were within two bushels of each other of that 321 number. I think the other one came in at like 319.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha. So yeah, just kind of take us through your process in terms of when you're applying the nutrients and side dressing, all that. Just kind of give us the basics of when you start and then throughout the entire process.
Jared Kenney:
I guess, pre-plant, we use a coulter machine. Go out, put some nitrogen on, 32 is what we use through the coulter machine. It's set up on 15 inch rows, so we can spread out that nitrogen a little bit so it's real available throughout the year. And then for the planter, we just put 10-34-0 starter fertilizer through in furrow with it. And then we put on anywhere from two to three applications, 20 to 30 gallons an acre worth of 32 through the pivots to kind of spoon feed that crop throughout the year then, once we get through about this time of year then.
We do put some fungicide, aerial application through that to help it stay green at the end of the year and the stand ability, and take care of the diseases. It just kind of depends which type we put on. If we put a preventative on, if there's not much disease out there, and if there's some disease starting in the pivots, we'll put some fungicide that'll take care of the disease right away.
Noah Newman:
So how many years have you been no-tilling and how did you get into it? Who are some of your biggest influences in that department?
Jared Kenney:
Ever since I've even remember, we've been trying to no-till as much as we can. Our biggest thing is most of our grounds in the hills, and when you get a big rain in our hills, it creates big washouts and it doesn't make it conducive to growing good crops or harvesting or any of the above. So that's kind of, I would guess, over the years, we just been no-tilling for that fact. To try to keep the soil structure and not disturb the soil and keep it on the side hill instead of having it wash away on us.
Brian O'Connor:
We'll get back to Noah's talk with Jared Kenney 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 Noah and Jared.
Noah Newman:
What are the absolute truths about no-till? What's key to making the no-till system work for you?
Jared Kenney:
Residue management's probably the hardest side of things. We run cows on a lot of our stocks to help clean up some of the stocks and just being able to get through those stocks and planting. When it comes to a truth, I mean this year in Nebraska, it's been kind of up and down. We started off probably the driest we've ever been since 2012, and you go around and you can see which fields were no-tilled, which ones were strip tilled. On those dry land corners or even dryland fields or conventionally tiled fields are completely burned up, and they're not going to make any corn, and you can see a no-till field across the road looks way better than it should for as dry as we have.
Noah Newman:
Have you tried using cover crops or anything? Dabbled on that at all?
Jared Kenney:
Yeah, we do pretty much every acre we can. We cut beans off, after harvest, we go in and plant just a wheat cover crop on it. Cover crops help sustain that moisture, give us little extra nutrients at the beginning of the year. But another added benefit is the weeds are such an issue these days, is holding back the weeds with little cover on the ground and keeping that soil growing as many months out of the year as possible keeps that soil alive and gets you better soil structure and nutritional value there when it comes to actually growing the crop.
Noah Newman:
Yeah, it seems like cover crop usage has really taken off over the past decade in America. When did you start using cover crops?
Jared Kenney:
It's probably been three or four years that we've been doing it, and I think the last couple years, we've been doing more and more just because we've seen the benefits. Another benefit is the erosion control on some of our hills. It just really holds that soil structure and keeps it in a better place. Even if you do need to work in some of those washouts or something, at harvests, after harvest, you can go back through and then get your cover crop in there and get some roots in there to establish a little structure to hold that soil together.
Noah Newman:
What species have you tried in the past three years? And any new ones you're looking at trying or?
Jared Kenney:
On the cover crop?
Noah Newman:
Yeah.
Jared Kenney:
Well, mostly, we just use wheat, is what we use. We have done a little rye here and there. It's probably been three years ago we had a mixture of turnips, radishes, triticale. We just tried that to have a little better cattle grazing in the fall and possibly in the spring.
Noah Newman:
And then what are your termination methods? Have you tried planting green or anything?
Jared Kenney:
Done? Both. Only struggle I've found on planting green is, I did one of my other fields this year. It was pretty green, probably was a little taller than I wanted it to get just because we had a little rain. But the hardest part is getting a good seed to soil contact when you have that much green and be able to punch through it and then get it closed. Because if it's wet, it just doesn't like to dry when there's a big shaded area underneath there. You just don't get much sunlight to the ground if you're trying to plant it into wet soil. So getting that seed trench closed is probably the hardest I've noticed when it comes to planting in the green.
Noah Newman:
So you didn't plant green for the high yielding plot, did you?
Jared Kenney:
No, we did not.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha. What we like to ask this to a lot of people we interview is what's unique about you from other no-tillers? Planting speeds? Tissue sampling? Y-drops? New products tested? Anything unique that you could think of when it comes to your operation?
Jared Kenney:
No, I don't know if there's anything unique that we try to do. I wouldn't say we're trying every new product there is, but we try to stay on the front end of the technology side. So we do have the latest and best technology there is to get the best possible scenario to grow the best crop.
Noah Newman:
So looking ahead to 2023 and 2024, anything new you're looking to try or something that has caught your eye?
Jared Kenney:
I think we're going to continue to expand on the cover crop side of things. We've even talked about some of our fields using an aerial applicator to spread some seed on some corn acres before harvest and run the pivot around a few times to try to get some cover crop established in the corn. That's one thing we've kind of looked at, it's just a matter of if it's economical to do and see the benefits of what you're doing.
Noah Newman:
Someone once told me that you learn more from mistakes than successes. So thinking about that, can you think of anything you've done over the years that was maybe a big mistake and you've really learned from or anything along those lines?
Jared Kenney:
Biggest mistake, I would say, is when you're planting. Planting is what puts the grain in the bin. If you're not taking the time to find the right seed depth, get out of the tractor, do some digging, figure out where that seed is, if you have the right spacing, if you're getting a good close on that track, that's probably the most crucial part of the year.
And the biggest mistake, you'd say, is going out planting a field that's too wet or too dry. Like this year, we started off, and we went into some of our no-till fields, and we couldn't even get the planter to go on the ground. As much pressure you could put on the machine, you couldn't get it to go to the seed depth you wanted. And so we pulled the planters out of the field and started a bunch of pivots and made a circle around them, put some moisture in the soil, and it was just day and night.
So I think not getting a rush when it comes to planting. There's been times we've said it's time to go, and we just went, and you see that outcome at the end of the year when it comes to yield. If you're not planting into the right conditions, it really hurts you at the end of the year.
Noah Newman:
You mentioned the fungicide earlier, but what other weed, insect, and disease control methods do you apply?
Jared Kenney:
Every year is different, and it seems like things are changing with the weeds, with the resistance. You have to be very vigilant in changing your modes of action to continue to change, so you have some kill on those weeds, and there's still some that you still struggle every year. Biggest challenge we've seen is just making sure you're rotating through things. Timing is almost as important as what you're spraying on this year or any other year is. If you don't catch the weeds at the right time they get too big, you just can't do anything about them.
Noah Newman:
So what crop did you grow the year before your high yield?
Jared Kenney:
There were soybeans on that field.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha, gotcha. Are you using any biologicals or?
Jared Kenney:
No biologicals or any of that yet.
Noah Newman:
Gotcha. Well, I think that's all the questions I had for you. Anything else you'd like to add or let people know about your operation or key to your success?
Jared Kenney:
No. I guess key to success is listen to the experts that we send out in the fields would be the agronomist and the seed guys. The agronomist goes around and lets us know where the moisture is, how much we have out there, helps us, give us the ability to know when we should be watering, when we shouldn't be watering. Some guys don't have that luxury of being able to go turn or pivot on when your crop's short on water, and for us, that's a deal breaker when it comes to this time of year when it's hot and dry for two weeks straight, and you don't catch any rains. It really makes the difference on being able to grow a crop.
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 Jared Kenney's 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 in this episode's webpage.
More podcasts about no-till farming are available over at no-tillfarmer.com/podcasts. A transcript of this episode will be available there shortly. Subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcast.
Today is my last day as a podcaster and editor for No-Till Farmer. I've enjoyed my time here immensely, and no matter who you are, if I met you at the National No-Tillage Conference or out and about, I'm glad I met you. I'd like to give special thanks to Frank and Mike Lessiter, Julia Gerlach, Michaela Paukner, Noah Newman, and Sarah Hill, and my producer, Joe [inaudible 00:18:26], for helping me along my podcast journey. And, of course, all the staff here at No-Till Farmer for making me a better editor. It's been a great run, guys.
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.
