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Seed Placement—It’s a Big Decision

We all have perfect ground, right?  Wrong!  We all have challenging ground that is considered low-yielding compared to other areas.  Some hybrids perform on “any acre”, but most do not.  Most hybrids have a weakness, and it’s just as important to find that weakness as it is to understand the strengths.  Part of the CHT and Response To Scores in the R7 tool is to identify those challenging situations that can mean real yield swings.  Using some real-world examples from this past growing season between a Croplan hybrid and an NK hybrid, the Croplan number hybrid-out performed the NK number in low-yielding situations by 15.7 bu/A.  The NK variety out-performed the Croplan variety in high-yielding situations by 4.5 bu/A.  That’s a 20.2 bu/A swing just by proper placement.  If you conservatively figure $2.75/bu corn, that’s $55.55/A.  Similarly, two numbers were compared in soybeans that showed a 10 bu/A swing.  Even at $7.50 soybeans, that’s a $75/A decision.  I would say that’s worth a stop into your local co-op for a seed placement discussion…the coffee is always on.