Diversifying Rotations Improves Corn Yields

Diversifying Rotations Improves Corn Profits

New York cash-grain farmers who rotate crops are boosting corn profits by $30 to $115 per acre while protecting the environment, SARE on-farm research shows. Rotations enhance corn yields and make it easier to reduce inputs. Eliminating the need for corn rootworm insecticide alone saves $15 to $20 per acre. By growing corn after soybeans, farmers increased yields by 8 to 27 bushels per acre compared with nonrotated corn last year on the four farms in this study. The farms range in size from 200 to 1,600 acres of silty loam or clay loam soil. The farmers did even better when they used a three-year rotation of soybeans, winter wheat/frost-seeded clover and then corn. That boosted corn yields by 20 to 25 bushels per acre. With one or more nitrogen-providing crops in the rotation, the farmers reduced their need for commercial nitrogen by an average of 30 percent. They pared herbicide costs for corn by 60 percent by spraying weedkillers only in narrow bands in the crop rows and by cultivating weeds just once. Favorable market prices for wheat and soybeans also strengthened farmers' profits. Studies such as this are helping cash croppers realize that smart rotations can outperform continuous corn, even with government incentives for growing corn. (Northeast Region project ANE92.8)

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