The 2012 Farm Progress Show dedicates 300 acres to demonstrations and test drives, but at this latitude, some thought has to be put into which corn hybrids will be ready to harvest on the show date. Consequently, in the middle of Iowa, there are hundreds of acres of corn that would normally be found in another part of the country.
“In order to be sure that we would have corn ready to go at the end of August, we plant a 78-day corn, which is not standard for the area,” said Matt Jungmann, manager of the Farm Progress Show, during an interview with Brownfield Ag News Monday at the show site near Boone, Iowa. “More normally you’d have a 105-day corn here.”
The hot, dry season was not what was expected following the planting of the demonstration plots, according to Jungmann.
“That corn really grew fast as we got ahead on heat units. And it did most of its work in May and June; it was tasseled out on June 20th,” said Jungmann. “It matured quickly, but it stood well, and as we took off the end rows, it was doing about 150 bushels [to the acre] at 13 percent moisture, so it’s going to make for a very nice demonstration.”
The Farm Progress Show exhibit area is also expanded to 85 acres, which Jungmann says is completely sold out.
AUDIO: Matt Jungmann (2 min. MP3)
© Copyright 2012 Brownfield, All rights Reserved. Written For: Brownfield
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I’m curious what your herbecide program was? I want to make sure I don’t use that one! Had to be kind of embarrassing to the corn head manufacturer who had to pull out and drive to the end because the head was so packed with waterhemp, all in front of about 7000 farmers on monday afternoon.