TAKING A GAMBLE
CABOT — An adage in farming says that corn should be knee high by the Fourth of July.
Some of the corn on the Thiele Farm is a deep shade of green that rises above the knee, and some of the corn in the same field is a pale green-yellow color and closer to the ankle.
Edward Thiele, who runs the family farm with his wife, Lorraine, and twin sons, William and James, is making a last-ditch effort to revive the weaker corn, which he called “embarrassing.”
Different rows of corn planted in the same field at the same time can appear differently, depending on how well the rain drains from the field and the location of field drainage systems, he said.
“It was lower than what I was expecting it to be because of the leaching, I'm assuming,” Thiele said.
He said nitrogen fertilizer is applied to the farm fields every year, but more is being used this year due to the wet soil.
“Adding nitrogen is a normal thing, but this year it needs more than normal because of the weather. We add a small amount while planting, but that doesn't supply all the plants' needs,” Thiele said.
The stunted corn is the result of excessive rainfall that is causing nitrogen, a nutrient vital to healthy corn, to leach or volatilize away.
Fertilizing with nitrogen now won't make the stunted corn catch up to the healthier corn, but Thiele hopes it will help his overall yield.Other farmers face the same situation with their corn crops, but applying nitrogen at this point in the growing season is a risk-versus-reward decision, said Justin Brackenridge, agronomy educator for the Penn State Extension in Butler County.“I'm getting a lot of calls from farmers,” Brackenridge said.Testing, such as the chlorophyll meter testing Thiele had done through the Butler County Conservation District, measures the nitrogen level in corn plants and tells a farmer how much, if any, fertilizer is needed, he said.“You lose 3 to 4 percent per day of your nitrogen once your soil is saturated,” Brackenridge said. “Nitrogen is really important to corn. When we see that yellowing color, it means a nitrogen deficiency.”Denitrification, in which nitrogen volatilizes, or turns to vapor, and escapes soil, is a bigger concern than leaching, he said.Plants don't absorb fertilizer as well now as they do earlier in the season, making nitrogen an expense that might not help corn, Brackenridge said.Applying nitrogen now could result in tractors damaging taller plants, he said.“Plants can't absorb at this point in the season. If corn has started growing, it can't absorb, so there's no return on investment,” Brackenridge said.Corn doesn't absorb nutrients well in saturated soil, said Ryan Harr, the conservation district watershed resource specialist who conducted the chlorophyll tests at the Thiele Farm.
“The corn is stressed from all the rain. The unknown is: can the corn benefit from additional nitrogen and how much?” Harr said.“A lot of (corn) is testing low, mostly because of stress from rainfall. I don't think it had to do with lack of nitrogen. It's just hard for plants to absorb nitrogen when it's wet. Corn with wet feet doesn't like to grow. There are some fields that are still underwater.”He said he works with farmers to help them avoid over application of nitrogen and wasting money on unneeded fertilizer, which can cause water quality issues when washed into streams and creeks.The tests Harr took on Thiele's plants showed that some fields needed 50 pounds of nitrogen per acre and some needed 80 pounds.Thiele said he knows plants don't absorb well in wet conditions and all of his plants won't recover, but he has to try something to help his yield, which he predicted will be 30 percent less than what it should be.“You have to spend money to make money,” Thiele said.He and his son, William, recently applied nitrogen in the form of urea, which contains 46 percent nitrogen. The farm purchased a couple tons of urea at a cost of $450 per ton, knowing it might not work.“Just because you add it doesn't mean it will fix it. Just because you add nitrogen doesn't mean it's going to cure it,” Thiele said.If the rain and leaching continue for much longer, the plants will be too tall to fertilize again, he said.
