Growers Association finishes soggy harvest

(Photo by Russ Mitchell) Alan Patten of Webb goes over some notes Friday with fellow members of the Clay County Growers Association at a 75-acre test plot, about six miles south of Spencer. Harvesting corn at the test plot is a daylong process and yield findings are used to make planting decisions the following spring. [Order this photo]

He doesn't have to be out on the golden, combine-scraped ground six miles south of Spencer.

Alan Patten of Webb was busy in his John Deere combine and Glen Chenhall of Spencer was carving another row in his Case International.

In fact, about eight volunteers were helping to get the corn harvest out of the 75-acre test plot on the kind of sun-splashed November day that's cool enough for a sweatshirt, but warm enough the leave the coat at home.

It's a daylong process and Hessman could be home with the coats, but then he wouldn't know if the testing group's fungicide helped the harvest. He wouldn't know which hybrids held up in a fall when October felt like November and November felt like October in northwest Iowa.

He's been getting those kinds of answers firsthand for 25 growing seasons and, in an anniversary year, he wasn't going to miss seeing the corn come out of the ground.

"A lot of plots don't last that many years so we're pretty happy," he said.

And with that, all summer long, the longtime Clay County farmer with an Agronomy degree from Iowa State made a couple of trips per week to check the test plot.

This year, the Clay County Growers Committee tinkered with twin-row planting. Instead of single rows, planted 30 inches apart, the growers are testing a method that puts a pair of rows seven inches apart, before a traditional 30-inch gap buffers introduce another stripe of twin rows.

"It's really quite new," Hessman said.

Hessman suspects the method produces smaller ears, but increases the yield per acre. Those numbers will be posted on the Clay County Growers Association Web site in a few days.

Tilling and no-till practices will be compared, as will the 87 different hybrids tested on the Clay County Growers Association plot.

(Photo by Russ Mitchell) Clay County Growers Association member Dave Hessman expects a record yield from the 75-acre test plot for corn hybrids, which is located along U.S. Highway 71 and is six miles south of Spencer. Soybeans were harvested in a test plot across the highway about three weeks ago. [Order this photo]

"They're weighing every variety to see what it weighs per bushel," Patten, said, as his John Deere hummed in the background. "Then they'll take moisture samples and adjust it. We're running into some mold problems and, yeah, it's wet."

October's soggy chill wasn't the only culprit. Hessman said the August growing season also was too cool.

A benevolent November allowed the growers to wrap up work just a handful of days before Thanksgiving. Friday's field work was pressing the harvest season to its limits -- it came within three days of the average date for the first inch of snowfall in the Spencer area, according to data from State Climatologist Harry Hillaker.

"The corn is yielding at about 185 to 220 bushel per acre," Hessman said. "I believe we'll probably have the highest yield we've ever had here. We have a lot of good volunteer help here and we want to thank all of those people."

The Clay County Growers Association held their summer field day in August. That's when about 300 people attended the program and left their mailing address and contact information.

Seed company representatives who travel along U.S. Highway 71 en route to the Clay County Fair also will pull over and jot down contact information when they see the clearly-marked test plot. Hessman will receive about 15 business cards in the mail along with a request for the annual findings.

"They'll all get a printed copy of the yield results," Hessman said. "They use this information in selecting their hybrids for the coming year - the soybeans are across the road in another field and they were harvested quite a while ago. Those results are also on the Web site. The corn will be there in a few days. We've got to get it calculated."

Twenty-five years of test-plot data have guided area farmers through the ever-changing practices, chemicals and genetics of a growing season. Don't count Hessman out for year 26.

He has a hard time staying away.

"Some people like to play golf," he said. "I like to walk the fields."