Weather impacts Beck’s seed corn production throughout the season
The Beck’s team frequently stops to check crop conditions and the progress of the work being done such as detasseling. (Chris Lusvardi)
Editor’s Note: The Ride Between the Rows series provides a behind-the-scenes look at Beck’s seed corn production process in Mount Pleasant, IA, beginning in May with planting and continuing in July for detasseling. The series will continue with harvest this fall. For more photos and videos from the tours, go to the Seed Today Facebook page. For more information, see the Third Quarter issue of Seed Today.
By Chris Lusvardi
As Adam Smith stood in his office looking at a map of seed corn production fields, he explained how each growing season starts with hopes that planting can go according to plan.
Smith, the corn grower manager for Beck’s in Mount Pleasant, IA, shows that the fields are spread out to the north and east of the facility all the way to the Mississippi River.
Smith points out planting nearby fields in an organized, timely fashion can help work go efficiently later in the season. But as could be expected, Smith knew from past experience to be flexible as the weather dictates when everything can be done.
This spring and early summer has been no exception with a high amount of rainy weather to delay planting and storms causing crop damage as detasseling was underway.
“The plan (for planting) got thrown out of the window by the middle of May,” Smith says. “We’ve got to be ready to go as soon as everything’s ready.”
Smith says they have ways to get everything back on track and the process running as smoothly as possible as he pointed out over 30 steps in the seed corn production process that are done throughout the season.
Beck’s provided Seed Today with a look on May 29 at the early steps in this year’s seed corn production process, followed July 25 with the detasseling process. The work done earlier in the season sets the stage for how well the upcoming harvest will go, which is expected to begin in late August.
Working With Growers
In the Mount Pleasant area, Beck’s contracts with about 50 growers on 14,000 acres of seed corn production. Beck’s has operated the Mount Pleasant facility since 2015.
Working with growers is one of four models that can be used with each of the company’s production sites operating differently. Smith says the models are owner-run, custom, grower operated, and turnkey.
Beck’s, which has been producing hybrid seed corn since starting with 80 acres in 1937, also focuses on its hybrid seed corn production near its headquarters in Atlanta, IN, along with key sites in El Paso, IL and Coon Rapids, IA. Over the years, Beck’s has grown to become the third largest seed corn brand in its marketing area and the largest in Indiana.
One of the ways Smith says the production process is set-up to make-up for less-than-favorable planting conditions is with the amount of equipment that is available and advancements in technology.
They can have 30-40 planters running in the area, having covered up to 2,900 acres in one day, Smith says.
“With high-speed planters, we can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time,” Smith says. “We started planting May 6 and with two weekends of planting after that, we covered 2,000 acres a day. They can get done quick because growers have become so comfortable with using GPS that they can just go.”
Timely planting sets the stage for steps later in the process as work depends on where the plants are in their growth cycle. Smith says while technology has advanced to help with some of the work that needs to be done, some steps including detasseling still need to be completed by hand with a team of workers.
Knowing when to expect the plants to be ready can help when trying to organize and having the teams ready, he notes.
Seed Treatment
Seed treatment is another tool that can be used to control plant growth. Smith says Beck’s has been using the BioNik™ plant growth regulator since 2015, which is tailored for hybrid seed corn production.
BioNik delays germination on male inbred lines, widens the pollen shed window, and ultimately maximizes the “nicking zone,” improving synchronization of pollen shedding of male flowers and female silks. It also effectively increases the amount of pollen shed by the males.
According to Smith, using that type of seed treatment has helped reduce the number of passes the grower has to make through each field, helping to save time and costs.
“We can change the recipe if we get delayed,” Smith says. “It helps us play the weather game.”
Isolation
Smith says particular attention is paid to how and where seed corn is planted as it shouldn’t be planted just anywhere. He says growers need to be mindful of what will be growing around it, so isolation is an important part of the process.
Smith notes seed corn should be planted at least 330 feet from direct exposure to other corn. Usually, he says, at least a 660-foot buffer is used, whether that’s with other crops such as soybeans planted, roadways, or open ground in between.
Isolating the plants helps to control where the wind can take pollen, Smith says.
“We do not want seed corn contaminated by a commercial neighbor,” Smith says. “We want to keep everything pure. We give growers an isolation map and they can ask their neighbors. We want to know what is going on the land.”
Smith explains row patterns of either four female to one male or four female to two males are utilized in each field to spread out pollen.
Field Scouting
As the season continues, Smith says each production field is scouted by Beck’s employees at least once a week.
One of their goals is to help growers make decisions about what chemicals to apply to minimize disease, insect, and weed pressure.
In the weeks following planting, Smith says growers get into and spray all of the fields with herbicides to help control weeds.
In the Mount Pleasant area, Smith says nine field managers work with growers, becoming quite familiar with all of the ground they cover.
“They know all the hot spots,” Smith says. “They’ve been on them so much. We’ll send scouting reports every week.”
Storm Damage
Smith says a storm July 15 caused widespread damage while detasseling work was underway, impacting approximately 5,500 of the 14,300 seed corn production acres near Mount Pleasant.
After spending the following days assessing the damage both by walking through the fields and with imagery from flying drones overhead, Smith says the decision was made to abandon two fields.
He adds green snap was the most common problem they were finding. Crews were able to clean up other damaged fields, with enough signs that the crops can bounce back in those areas to continue the production process.
“We went through and so much was snapped,” Smith says. “We didn’t want to waste manpower. It’s the worst storm I’ve been through in my 18 years of doing this. We were detasseling my first year when a storm hit, but it was not as bad as this one.”
Production Location Manager Blake Smith says when previous storms have gone through, they will usually see localized damage but the difference with this one was the high winds were so widespread, covering a much larger area than usual.
Detasseling Process
Following cleanup from the storms, work continued to detassel the corn as the season moved closer to harvest.
Adam Smith says they have been fortunate this year to have the machines and workforce available that are needed to keep the process moving along as smoothly as possible despite the challenges. He adds they will usually have at least five machines running a day, with as many as 11 machines running one day and over 300 workers to work on the hand picking of the corn.
Smith says it’s important for the detasseling process to be completed.
“They can come in and go,” Smith says. “When it’s time to cut, it’s time to cut.”
With the wet field conditions, the ground does not have time to dry out, making for challenging driving conditions. Drivers slide back and forth in the mud, testing their ability to keep the equipment on track to cut four female rows, with the male rows remaining uncut.
“We’ve had lots of rain,” Smith says. “They don’t want to get the machines buried in mud, but they can slow down and keep going.”
Smith says the goal is to remove 75-80% of the tassels mechanically, followed by crews removing 20-25% of the remaining tassels by hand, resulting in 99.7% genetic purity.
Prior to cutting, he points out the corn can grow quite unevenly depending on varying factors within the field. The more uniform the plants end up, the better as they don’t want the corn to self-pollinate.
Prior to the storm, Smith says the corn had started growing at a rapid pace, with much of it ready or nearly ready to cut.
Yield Estimates
Despite the challenges, Smith still sees plenty of reasons to be optimistic about yields at the end of the season, including the male rows not being damaged in the storms.
“We could still be looking at something really big,” he says. “Somehow we can still make a lot of corn.”
The Beck’s team planned to begin taking yield estimates in August before harvest begins with the numbers being especially important for the company’s sales team holding the annual Becknology Days event Aug. 22-24 in Atlanta, IN. The event showcases the latest advancements and innovations in agriculture.
Smith says they will have a pretty accurate estimate for yields for the different varieties based on experience and readings they take in the field. The team can take kernels and estimate yields during visual inspections of the fields.
Blake Smith explains yield estimates are important to making sure they have sufficient storage space available.
“We can figure out other options for grain bins if we need to,” Blake Smith says. “With read outs early, the storage space can be freed up.”
He adds they can also take the information and apply lessons learned in the years to come.