TSM® January 2005 Newsletter | News Home |     | TSM® Home |       Newsletter in PDF Format   Research Farm      Fertility Trials 2004             By Randy Simonson, Ph. D. Other Articles in This Issue: TSM® Micro-Boost Trials, 2004 Corn/Soybean Variety Trials, 2004 2005: Time to Look Forward This 2004 season was better than average.  We got into the field early, but May was wet.  We got the corn in on time, but we had a difficult time getting the last soybean field planted. One problem that occurred in July was high winds.  Some say there were tornadoes and others say they were just straight-line winds.  Whichever it was, it caused some of the corn to go down.  Whether the corn fell down or remained standing was very hybrid specific.  Most of our corn made out ok, but as you will see later in the table with the corn hybrid trial, some hybrids really went down. The fertility trials have been in place for 12 years on corn and soybeans. We have a corn and soybean plot each year but we rotate the two crops every year.  The same treatments are used on the same individual plots every year.  There are six treatments, three TSM® budgets (A, E and I), and three other fertility programs (University of Illinois, Tri-State and a conventional program with 200 lbs. of DAP/acre and 200 lbs. potash/acre applied only to the corn and no fertilizer applied to the soybeans). Specialty Fertilizer Products supplied the TSM® Pre-Mix, which was used for the TSM® treatments. CORN Two different corn hybrids were used this year.  The hybrids were Kruger® K-9313 and K-9910 YBCB.  Lumax® and Force® were provided by Syngenta® to control weeds and corn rootworms in the corn.  We used the Agrium® polymer coated, slow release urea called ESN® for nitrogen in the corn.  The ESN® was applied pre-plant and incorporated.  The TSM® Premium Germinator was applied at a rate of 5 gal./acre to the row of the corn. The first table shows the corn yields for each hybrid used.  The Kruger® K-9910 YGCB yielded about 20 bu./acre more than the K-9313.  Besides the genetic difference in the two hybrids, the corn borer tolerance could account for much of this difference. TSM® A, the high fertility plot, was the high treatment for K-9313, but with K-9910 YGBC the highest treatment was TSM® E (medium fertility).  The high treatment of the mean between the two hybrids was TSM® E and the low was U of IL.  TSM® I had a respectable mean of 190 bu./acre although K-9910 YGCB yielded much better than K-9313 in this low fertility plot.  TSM® I averaged similarly to Tri-State and conventional treatments. Treatment TSM A TSM E TSM I U of IL Tri-State Conventional Mean Kruger K-9313 bu/acre 185 184 176 172 183 181 180 Kruger K-9910 YGCB bu/acre 201 204 203 197 199 195 200 Mean bu/acre 193 194 190 185 191 188 190 This past season was good for corn but last year was better.  This year produced corn that yielded 9 bu./acre better than the average, whereas last year the yields were 36 bu./acre higher than the average. The 12-year average shows the TSM® E treatment yielding the greatest with an average of 186 bu./acre.  TSM® A is next, then everything else is 178 or 180 bu./acre. 1993-2004 TSM® Research Farm Catlin, Illinois Corn Yields (bu/acre) Treatment 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1999 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 12-yr Mean TSM® A 140 202 160 152 175 174 217 191 191 188 218 193 183 TSM® E 135 216 163 161 185 173 217 189 188 189 222 194 186 TSM® I 135 202 157 146 169 163 210 183 178 182 217 190 178 U of IL 127 209 160 151 182 170 215 178 186 181 218 185 180 Tri-State - - - 142 173 169 214 178 182 180 215 191 178 Conventional 125 205 160 154 180 170 213 182 187 179 214 188 180 Mean 132 207 160 151 177 170 214 184 185 183 217 190 181 SOYBEANS The soybean variety used was Kruger K-393 RR/SCN.  DowAgrosciences® provided FirstRate® and GlyphoMax® herbicides.  The FirstRate® was applied with the first application of GlyphoMax® and then a second application of GlyphoMax® was applied by itself. The average yields this year tied with 2002 for having the highest average yield in the fertility plot.  TSM® E topped the plots this year as it does when the 12 past years of production are averaged.  Again, the TSM® I treatment is doing surprisingly well for the amount of fertilizer that is being applied.  The TSM® I treatment produces as much as the non-TSM® treatments. 1993-2004 TSM® Research Farm Catlin, Illinois Soybean Yields (bu/acre) Treatment 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 12-yr Mean TSM® A 57 58 43 53 64 52 72 60 66 76 54 72 61 TSM® E 62 73 44 57 61 55 72 64 65 75 58 74 63 TSM® I 58 65 40 54 60 52 62 55 63 72 55 71 59 U of IL 56 65 38 56 57 52 65 60 60 67 54 68 58 Tri-State - - - 56 54 53 66 59 62 72 57 71 59 Conventional 56 59 41 55 60 53 70 60 63 66 55 70 59 Mean 58 64 41 55 59 53 68 60 63 71 56 71 60       ©  TSM Services, Inc. Back to Top