Better Farming | October 2024

42 It’s Farming. And It’s Better. Better Farming | October 2024 and are willing to retest a sample if the levels seem to be unrealistic. Potassium levels can drop significantly if you are growing alfalfa and applying very little potassium. If the change in levels appear to be unrealistic, talk to your Certified Crop Advisor, or contact me. I don’t mind discussing a few samples. Grades, bushel weight, TKW, and other things everyone talks about as we wait for corn to dry down Bushel weight is used to determine grade. Once grade is established, a price is given, but bushel weight is not an indication of yield. What is important is the weight of corn kernels, generally expressed as TKW or the weight of 1,000 kernels. When yield estimates are done in August, we have no idea of the thousand kernel weight (TKW). It is determined in September. Think of it as having a corn kernel as you keep packing nutrients into the kernel shell. The shell size was determined earlier. If you can pack more into that shell, it will weigh more. Years of good yields are generally years with high TKW. You can get an estimate of what your bushel weight will be. Pick some cobs and let them air dry in a warm area. Once they are down to around 20 per cent, hand shell and get a bushel weight. This bushel weight will probably be higher than what will occur if put through a dryer. By slow-drying, the skin shrinks as the kernel dries. If put through a dryer, the skin won’t shrink as much and you end up with fewer kernels in a designated volume – that designated volume being related to a bushel. To make things more complicated, the size of a bushel is not the same in Canada and the United States (U.S.). In Canada, the bushel is based on the British Imperial (Avery) bushel (36.37 L), which is slightly larger than the U.S. (Winchester) bushel (35.24 L). All of this is rather irrelevant, since corn is bought and sold by weight such as tonnes or tons. As you read this magazine, harvest has started. Maybe you are reading during a wait time during harvest. Here are some things that you need to do.  Check that all drivers (including your dad) have an up-to-date driver’s licence and health card.  Check that all road vehicles have proper paperwork on board – licences, insurance, safety checks.  Create lists of the 911 addresses for each of your field locations prior to harvest and have them easily accessible to family and farm employees. Most emergency vehicles have GPS equipment on board to assist directing them to incidents. When an incident is called in with a 911 address, dispatch can more readily identify the incident location and relay this information to drivers. Precious time can be saved when able to dispatch immediately with GPS guidance rather than having to double-check maps and directions. This also helps if you need to make an equipment repair.  A lot of preliminary seed orders are taken during harvest. Decide which companies you want to buy seed from and what characteristics you want in your hybrid.  Develop a system where you can record weed escapes as you combine. That little patch of a new weed will become a problem in the future. Drop pins in the field using Climate FieldView or John Deere Operations Center programs. When I look back over the years, I think about all the accidents that have occurred during harvest – broken bones, hospital injuries, even death. This harvest, please be safe. Think twice. If you are thinking what you are about to do might not be safe, it probably isn’t. BF crops: the lynch fileS PATRICK LYNCH Patrick writes a weekly crop production newsletter and is a popular speaker at farm meetings. Opinionated, controversial; formerly with OMAFRA and Cargill. CCA-ON.

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