Farmers grumble about high corn seed costs — even those who don’t milk cows. But in the big picture, seed cost usually is a small part of the whole corn yield component, cautions Tom Kilcer, certified crop adviser and owner of Advanced Ag Systems in Kinderhook, N.Y.

Here are six tips from Kilcer on how to save money and produce profitable corn and corn silage milk yields:

1. Save money where it counts. Invest in soil tests, he emphasizes. What little you could save by skimping on seed cost is thrown away many times over with “insurance” fertilizer.

2. Capitalize on climate change. Summertime maximum temperatures have been declining from Minnesota to Maine for the past 80 years. So the heat units we get are shifting, Kilcer says.

Spring and especially fall have been warmer than normal. That’s beneficial to cool season crops like winter forages, but the late-season warmth is normally too cool to benefit warm season crops such as corn or sorghum.

3. Shift to shorter-season hybrids. An increasing number of farms have been moving toward shorter-season corn. One reason is that they can take advantage of phenomenally high forage quality and profitable yields from planting winter forage earlier in the fall. It benefits soil health and nutrient retention and increases yields. And, planting earlier in the spring tends to accrue a higher harvest.

Due to demand from those growing winter forages, seed corn companies are putting more effort into producing higher yielding and higher quality shorter season corn silage varieties. This is showing in the variety trials and in farmer reports.

This means old-crop corn has to come off slightly earlier. Economic analysis shows it’s a profitable move.

4. Picking silage hybrids. If you’re growing dairy forage, then quality — not just yield — must be considered. The fiber portion makes up half of the dry matter, so a slight change in digestibility can have a significant impact on potential milk production.

Starch percentage of total yield is another factor to consider. Be cautious with that starch number. A very hard starch will look good on paper, but won’t milk well, even with processing and long silage fermentation time, Kilcer says.

A softer kernel will process easier and provide more energy to the cow — not to the birds picking at the manure. For example, even an 82-day softer kernel silage hybrid can crank out 30 tons of 35% dry matter silage per acre.

5. Mine the data. For choosing your best hybrids, a number of universities have run unbiased tests of multiple seed corn company products in multiple sites.

In 2017, Cornell University has reinstated variety trials both in New York and in conjunction with University of Vermont. Here are links to websites of where 2017 trial results are published are: 

The New York and Vermont data is published at Prodairy corn silage trial data.

Vermont’s for short-season corn silage for double-cropping are at Cropsoil research.

Pennsylvania’s are at Pa commercial grain and silage hybrid corn tests.

Minnesota data is at 2017 corn silage final.

Wisconsin’s corn silage results are at 2017 A3653.

Michigan State’s 2017 results are at Michigan corn hybrids compared.

6. Don’t let planter performance rob profits. One last money-saver from Kilcer: You may spend hours researching corn hybrids. Spend at least that much time going over your planter so that seed is optimally placed to do its best job.

Finger type planters need to be calibrated every year for large acreage and at least every other year for small acreage. Vacuum planter meter units need to be taken off, stored in a dry spot and sent out for calibration. Utilizing in-furrow seed firmers assures more accurate seed placement.

Source: Advanced Ag Systems

For more background, see Dig into this corn data to find new top-performing hybrids