Despite having his corn crop freeze three times last spring after planting, Gary LeVan of Potsdam was fortunate to experience the flip side after harvest. His corn yield took first place in Minnesota in the National Corn Growers’ AA No-Till/Strip-Till Nonirrigated category.

Gary LeVan

LeVan, who farms with his wife, Susie, and their son Jason, operate a 520-acre grain farm in Wabasha County. They raise 420 acres of corn, 38 acres of soybeans, 38 acres of peas and double crop beans.

They farm Port Byron silt clay loam, mostly on rolling contours. All of their corn going into soybean ground is no-till. All of their corn-on-corn acres are fall-chiseled and then worked in spring. They apply anhydrous then, work the ground again and then plant in April.

After planting last April, a cold snap hit — and more than once.

“It froze three times last spring in the April-May time period,” LeVan recalls. After waiting for what seemed like forever, he adds, the corn eventually started to regrow. After that, they resumed their usual agronomic practices, spraying TripleFlex and later Roundup for weed control, and then fungicide in July and August.

“In fall, we harvested a wonderful crop,” he says. Their average yield from the field that was the winner —corn on beans — averaged slightly more than 285 bushels of corn per acre. They had planted Dekalb DKC54-40RIB.

Fertility was provided by fall-applied phosphorus and potassium. In the spring, LeVan applied 130 pounds of anhydrous ammonia and five 10-34-0 liquid in-furrow with his planter. When corn was around 18 inches tall, he sidedressed with 40 pounds of 28% N.

When asked about his winning yield and how it came to be, LeVan was philosophical.

“Life is all about timing,” he says. Mother Nature, act of God, years of fertilizing with a progressive ag co-op — all contributed the producing a great crop.

“Rain, nutrients and maybe the three mornings the corn froze — maybe they had something to do with yield, too,” he adds.

LeVan says he has participated in the NCGA contest since the late 1970s. The best yield he entered previously was a couple of years ago — 258 bushels — and that took third place.

Minnesota growers and the hybrids entered and placed in the 2016 NCGA corn yield contest were:

Category: AA Nonirrigated
1. Gary Prescher, Delavan, Golden Harvest G10S30-3220, 288.64 bushels per acre
2. Bonnie Schroeder, Elgin, Dekalb DKC54-38RIB, 288.20 bushels
3. Jesse Buesgens, Belle Plaine, Pioneer P1151AM, 288.17 bushels

Category: AA No-Till/Strip-Till Non-Irrigated
1. Gary LeVan, Elgin, Dekalb DKC54-40RIB, 285.18 bushels per acre
2. Chris Sobeck, Winona, Dekalb DKC58-06RIB, 278.99 bushels
3. Joseph and James Schieber, Caledonia, Pioneer P0157, 265.48 bushels

Category: No-Till/Strip-Till Irrigated
1. Jenna Sobeck, Winona, Dekalb DKC62-08RIB, 267.87 bushels per acre

Category: Irrigated
1. Joseph Hopkins, Buffalo, Pioneer P0533AM1, 272.99 bushels
2. Jeff Edling, Clear Lake, Dekalb DKC53-68RIB, 260.67 bushels
3. Richard Steele, Alden, Dekalb DKC58-06RIB, 259.88 bushels