In early June, North Carolina’s corn crop was shaping up to be mostly a good one, with one big caveat: good moisture will be a must this month for farmers to make good yields.

In a June 8 interview with Southeast Farm Press, North Carolina State University Extension Corn Specialist Ron Heiniger said North Carolina corn farmers saw a good planting season this year with good stands and good early growth. Most of the state’s corn crop is off to a good start with the exception of the crop in parts of the Southern Coastal Plain in the Lumberton and Laurinburg areas where excessively dry weather for most of  May damaged the crop.

“Across the state,  for the most part, the corn is in very good shape. We’re going to need rain in the next couple of weeks. For the most part this has been a good corn year so far. If it doesn’t rain in the next two and a half weeks, we will likely have a poor crop,” Heiniger said on June 8.

One thing is certain, Heiniger noted, farmers who have irrigation are definitely using it to give their corn needed moisture this month.

The good news is that disease pressure hasn’t been an issue so far across the state. Weed control for the most part has been excellent,  and the only insect problems are some stink bugs and bill bugs in some spots, but nothing widespread.

Indeed, the top concern for corn farmers this year is high nitrogen fertilizer costs and high diesel fuel costs. “This certainly has driven up our costs and our risks,” Heiniger said.

“The issue for farmers is how to do more with less nitrogen That’s a hard issue to tackle because fertilizer is essential for corn. We’ve been working with growers trying to understand how much fertilizer to put on. How much nitrogen should I put  on in this layby stage?” Heiniger said.

“We went into the season telling most of the farmers to think about reducing your nitrogen rates by 20 or 30 units. The question is if I’ve got a good crop up to this stage, should I be doing that? If I don’t have a very good crop,  like they do in the southern counties, what do I do there? In those situations, you need to cut back.  If the crop looks poor already, there’s no sense on wasting money on nitrogen you’re not going to use,” he added.

For most farmers, reducing nitrogen by 20 to 30 units per acre this year will be a good call. Still, Heiniger said nothing works  better than a farmer’s own intuition and common sense when it comes to making decisions on the corn crop.

“You know what your crop looks like at this stage of the game; you know what your yield levels are. We  are looking at hybrids that can get by with .8 or at the very most .9 pounds of nitrogen per bushel,” Heiniger explained.  “If  you’re looking at your crop right now, and you’re looking at the weather, and you’re expecting   a 160-bushel crop, 120 units of nitrogen is probably all you will need. If you’re looking at your crop in the Tidewater region, and you see a 230-bushel crop, 180 to 190 units of nitrogen is what you will need.”

Heiniger said the good news is that with corn prices at $7 to $8 per bushel right now, corn farmers can make some money this year if they have yields of at least 150 bushels per acre.

So, what should corn farmers do now  to ensure they have good yields come harvest?

“Right now, you are out there assessing. This  is the perfect time for making a good assessment of what your yield potential is. You base that assessment on three things. First of all, how uniform is the field? If it got off to a good uniform start, if you’re looking across the field,  and there’s a nice table- top appearance to that crop, you’ve got often to a good start. Second of all, how much growth do you have at this point?  If it’s gotten off to a good start and you have quite a bit of leaf area and big wide leaves, and you’ve got good growth, that’s another indication that you achieved what you wanted to achieve at this point in time.  Third, color. Is  it dark green?” Heiniger said.

If all these boxes are checked, Heiniger said farmers should expect a good crop this year, if they get the moisture they need in June and July. Job one right now is still evaluating how much nitrogen you believe your crop will need to give you good yields. He says most farmers can reduce their layby nitrogen rates by 20 to 30 units and still make the yields they will need.

Ron Heiniger,  photographed at the Tidewater  Research Center in Plymouth, N.C., in February 2021. (John Hart Photo)