DUVAL, Sask. — Corn is moving closer to a permanent place in Saskatchewan crop rotations, if Brad Hanmer’s recent hybrid grain corn results are any clue.
The Duval producer recently harvested a 65 acre field of two Pioneer Hi-Bred corn varieties: P7443RR and P7213RR.
The corn stood 2.5 metres tall, nestled between the community’s old wooden grain elevators and the blacktop of Highway 20.
Silage corn has been grown with success on the Prairies but grain corn has not seen the same popularity.
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That may be why 70 curious farmers watched as a John Deere 9860STS combine picked its way through the field eight rows at a time. The farmers ate barbecued hamburgers and took turns operating the corn header, which was a first for many.
Hanmer said the quality of the crop contributed to the strong turnout. Many farmers had watched it grow throughout the spring and summer as they drove the highway.
“We should be very close to hitting the 100 net bushels per acre goal,” said Hanmer.
“We are confident that we finally have genetics that may work in our area. Four and five years ago we were starting at the base line that was much steeper than we are today.
“Not only do we have the right maturities, but we also have very good dry down characteristics, which is equally as important if you’re going to successfully grow this.”
Hanmer has been growing test plots of grain corn for six years. Besides farming with his family, he is also an independent dealer with Pioneer Hi-Bred.
He said his family became serious about growing grain corn three years ago when they bought a corn planter.
“It’s like the chicken and the egg. Without a corn planter you can’t grow successful corn, but until you have one you won’t,” he said.
Greg and Garret Hill are sold on growing hybrid corn. The brothers have been winter grazing their cattle on 450 acres of hybrid corn for three years. They leave it standing and turn cattle into it in November.
They said the advantages are obvious.
“I don’t have to haul bales and start tractors,” said Greg.
Turning the cows loose in the 450 acres of standing corn reduces their feed requirements by 4,000 bales. Last year, they achieved 185 cow days an acre off of the corn field and spent only 74 cents per day on the cows until mid-February.
“This year I’m sure will be quite similar,” he said. “So it’s cheap feeding, it’s easy at freeze-up time and cuts out 4,000 bales.”
Hill said the cows put nutrients back into the soil and eat the stalks down to the ground.
He said local grain producers are watching to see how the cobs produce and dry down.
“For the cow guy, it’s a very good thing, and I believe it’s going to be a viable crop for the grain farmer as well,” he said.
“The hybrid technology is coming along so that I think it’s going to work here. It might not be there yet to make the perfect crop, but it’s definitely getting better.”
Hanmer has kept a close eye on the progress of grazing and silage crops in his neighbourhood. What he learned left him confident that the earliest maturing hybrids could also perform as well as grain in his area.
“The grazing and silage guys have been doing this quite successfully. The message here is not only through genetics and fertility, but without the proper mechanization corn won’t work.”
Hanmer decided to give up on the smaller scale trials, which were not doing the overall production justice.
“We basically attempted to do a much better job of managing corn as if it was a full corn field. I pretended I had 1,000 acres of corn,” he said.
“Up until that point we were just using it as a conceptual idea.”
He also recognized the value of the corn header in obtaining the maximum yield with the lowest possible moisture.
Unlike draper or platform headers, which cut off most of the crop and send it into the combine, the dedicated corn header reduces the amount of stalk being put through the grain processor.
The combine works faster and the resulting sample is much cleaner with significantly lower moisture.
“Having the right tools is absolutely essential,” he said. “It may sound really elementary to other parts of Canada. Corn is a fairly novel thing in our area, especially for grain.”
Hanmer said economics will dictate how this is implemented.
“If we continue to get nine or 10 dollar wheat, corn’s going to need to be in the $7-$8 range to compete. Our production costs on that field were around $30 an acre more than a canola crop.”
Hanmer’s pioneering efforts are starting to pay off. Hill said he overheard several farmers at the field day talk about seeding corn acres next year. A few guys were still leery, but Hill said that’s normal.
“The motivation is we really want corn to work here,” Hanmer said.
“The day that we did it proved to the area that it’s a lot closer to mainstream than one would have thought. I think that most people were very excited about it.”
