Renewable Farming

AgriEnergy offers a new way you can add more corn yield late in the growing season

AgriEnergy Resources general manager Dean Craine recently reported 2018 field trials with the firm’s new Stay Green foliar product, designed to keep corn growing rather than succumbing to early die-down. 

January 2, 2019 — Replicated trials on several farms in 2018 confirmed what AgriEnergy’s initial 2017 tests showed: Stay Green applied at early to late dent stage keeps nutrients flowing and prolongs healthy kernel fill. Yield gains of around 10 to 32 bu. look highly probable. Replicated tests in 2017, under less stressful conditions than in 2018, averaged 56 bushels.

Stay Green yield benefits are consistent with other aids for keeping corn alive through early to late dent, when the potential for a final 50 bu. or more per acre is packed with deeper kernels and higher test weight. The increase in nutritional vitality also shows up in late stalk health, building stronger stalks and standability. The picture just below shows  that treated corn on the left remained mostly upright in late October, following a night of 60-mph winds, while untreated corn several feet away had major stalk breakage.

 

Dean explained one reason why maintaining green leaves and open vascular systems is critical for finishing strong: To raise 308-bu. corn, the month from corn’s early dent to mature black later demands uptake of 115 lbs. per acre of nitrogen. This period’s N requirement is second only to 144 lbs. required during the two weeks from early tassel to full silking. If late nitrogen isn’t available, or if leaves and stalks are dying from diseases, the critical late yield isn’t added. 

Stay Green is a proprietary blend of nutrients and biological support manufactured by AgriEnergy Resources at Princeton, IL. Renewable Farming LLC plans to have Stay Green available in 2019 if it’s registered for sale.

Dean showed AgriEnergy dealers the following slides at their fall/winter dealer meetings, explaining evidence found in field trials with Stay Green. The caption under each photo summarizes each trial.

An on-farm trial at LaMoille, IL showed weigh-wagon yield of 237.3 bu. for untreated corn,
and 269.7 bu. for the corn which received 3.5 gallons per acre of a foliar mix containing Stay Green.
It was flown on by helicopter after brown silking. Treated corn escaped most of the top breakage,
stalk rot and lodging which hit corn after August.
The eight rows just to the left of the harvested eight rows in the photo show an untreated strip that’s much darker 
than treated corn. The untreated corn yielded 10.5 bu. less than the corn which was sprayed with Stay Green.
Adding fungicide in the tank mix made virtually no yield difference compared with the untreated check. All of the gain
can be attributed to Stay Green. Dean told dealers that the treated corn remained green,
when most of the corn in the surrounding county was dead.
A client about 12 miles northeast of Princeton flew on a Stay Green test with a helicopter.
This GPS map shows the helicopter’s flight path. The top right field was sprayed July 23
after brown silk. The top right field had a 7-acre untreated check. When the pilot finished
the test field, he moved to the field in the lower left of the photo and sprayed out
the remaining product in his tank. The lower right photo is looking across the hayfield
toward that patch where the pilot finished off his tank. The pickup in the photo is parked
at the center of that strip. Treated corn in the strip is darker green and healthier
in this photo, taken in late August.
The helicopter pilot who sprayed Stay Green on the field above flew past the field again
in late August and shot this photo. It offers an aerial view of the strip he sprayed:
Much greener than the corn above and below the untreated strip.
Satellite images showing the vegetative index taken August 22 and again on August 27
tell the same story of healthier corn where Stay Green was foliar applied.
In these images, blue represents healthier corn.
AgriEnergy Resources general manager Dean Craine recently reported 2018 field trials with the firm’s new Stay Green foliar product, designed to keep corn growing rather than succumbing to early die-down.