Episode 6: The Importance of Hybrid Selection
Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:01):
<silence> Welcome back to another episode of an Earful podcast about farming and country life. Zach, what’s going on this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, it’s still dark outside this morning, and, uh, our barn lot is a complete disaster out there. We’ve, uh, we’ve been playing mill right the last week or so, trying to get our drain system together to, uh, handle all these ush.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah. Yeah. Uh, right now we have a Bluetooth series leg ’cause we have no downspouts, so that’s, that’s super fun. Might make a mess when we try to turn it on, but hopefully here by the end of the day we’ll have some pipes hitting some bins. Yeah,
Speaker 2 (00:39):
That would be nice. It’s, uh, it’s kind of been a struggle on that end of it, trying to get it done. And, uh, obviously best time to work on your grain systems, typically not the end of October, but that’s how she gets.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah. Uh, especially around here. Seems like we’re always way behind the eight ball when we go to go to do things like that, but, oh, well, it’s, it is what it is. So at least tell the listener something exciting that’s going on here tomorrow for yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hmm. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, flying out to Vegas tomorrow, because I have a wedding in Utah on Saturday, so get to experience that. And I’ve never been any further than St. Louis heading west, so I’m gonna go see a different part of the country and, uh, fly commercially for the first time. So that’ll be, that’ll be a fun thing to do, I suppose. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Um, you at least need to write that you’re, you know, going to see customers or something. So we can tell Uncle Joe it’s a write off.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah. Or write off.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right, right. That, that slot machine was a very serious prospect. So the $200 I lost in there is definitely, you know, a write off.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah. I’m thinking it’ll fall into the customer entertainment category. We’ll see if we can, uh, make some new, find some new customers out out West Southwest.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
There you go. So, uh, today we kinda wanted to talk about, uh, hybrid selection for your corn. Been out talking to customers about, uh, different corn hybrids, what’s been successful in the plots. So today we just kind of wanted to talk about what goes into our decision making process here on our farm and how we help our customers make decisions, uh, based on, you know, hybrid characteristics, placement, what population they’re willing to plant, different things like that. So, Zach, talk a little bit about conversations we have where you usually start when you’re thinking,
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, I do know where the grower likes to start. The grower will say, I want the best yielding corn. The best standing corn. Yeah. I mean, so that’s easy. Just hit that button. And, uh, corn Hybrid.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Right. And they don’t care about, uh, they don’t care about price at all.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, yeah. They want the, they want cheap, the cheapest and the highest yielding or, uh, best test weight. You got the test weight guys. But, uh, no, I mean, there’s a lot of things that play into picking out a hybrid and, uh, you know, we’re, we’re associated with agri roll. They’ve made it pretty easy, um, easier than other companies in that regard to kind of pick out a hybrid. It’s easier to, uh, I don’t know how I should say that, to sift through the hybrids in, in the field GX system with Agri Gold as, uh, they just really spell it all out for you. ’cause there’s a, I mean, there’s a lot of factors to go into this, to tell you what, what kind of a kind of timing are you looking at? Where, where’s your location? What kind of ground are you playing into? How do you put on <inaudible>? I mean, a lot of things.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah. The agricul genetic families really make it easier on our end as a, as a placement tool. Yeah. Uh, ’cause if you’ve got a guy that you know is not going to put fungicide on that puts you in one family Yep. You’ve got a guy you know is going to put fungicide on, well, that puts you in a different family. Um, and then you’ve got the guys that are kind of in between. So, so, you know, family F one that we plan around here all the time. Yeah. We call it family fungicide, because to be successful with that, you have to put fungicide on
Speaker 2 (04:29):
It. Yeah. You gotta definitely focus on plant health
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And I think it has some of the highest, um, yield potential in the lineup. Yeah. But you gotta spend a little bit of money to get it. It’s, yeah. It’s a, it’s a high manager, you know, we’re splitting nitrogen. Uh, it’s one of those that’s late grain fill, so that sucker’s gotta be fed in in August.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, that’s right. You know, like I say, we say, you know, field GXF, that f stands for fungicide and, uh, it needs it. I mean, it really, it it does, I mean, for its most optimal performance.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah. Yeah. And <laugh> and on the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got family B, which is kinda like, bye-bye
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Plan, forget it. Go to Florida.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Yeah. 4, 4 44. Four four in the spring. Four in the fall in 44 in Florida.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, that’s right.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Um, that sucker will pretty much do what you want it to do wherever you put it, as long as it doesn’t have super wet feet. Uh, and it, I mean, it’s, it’s the one for the, the grower that doesn’t wanna put on fungicide, they want put on anhydride the fall. They wanna, you know, be, um, kind of kind distant with their management practices. It’s still gonna yield for you
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes. A consistent family nonetheless.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Right. It’s gonna be consistent. It’s just not going to be as, uh, racehorse like an F would be.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Right. And that’s definitely something to look at too. It’s just your management practices. You know,
Speaker 1 (05:57):
I think, uh, a different, different mindset from each farmer really plays into how we do this. I know when we were planting other brands, uh, we always said, okay, we plant 110 to 115 day, give us four hybrids. And you know, they’d usually give you a hundred, ten, a hundred eleven, a hundred thirteen, fourteen, and 15. Woo. Okay. That, that doesn’t really, they give you one of every, one of every maturity. That sounds great, but how much genetic diversity do you actually have? Um, God forbid you’re planting two companies and they’re buying their, uh, genetics from one place. If you have a, you have a Becks hybrid and AC consultant’s hybrid, and they both bought ’em out of Corteva. Are they the same hybrid in two different bags, that you really didn’t spread your diversity at all?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Right, exactly. And that is something you gotta consider too, is you definitely wanna spread your risk out the best you can. And I feel like, uh, you know, like this, the Field GX program really helps you, helps you do that. You know, if, uh, you know, we talk to on family bees as a plant, forget, well, maybe you got a farm that’s a little further away, you’re not gonna be on top of that, uh, farm every single day, keeping an eye on things and how it’s going. He wants something consistent. Uh, maybe you have, you want to keep a box around that you could stick it anywhere. Well, that, that puts you to a different family. I mean, it, it is interesting, you know, all the little factors that you can play into it, but I feel like growers have to get more involved in hybrid selection. Uh, maybe not just turning their sales rep loose and saying, just gimme, you know, just like you said, just gimme four hybrids from 110 to 115, and maybe that’s not the way to do it. You know, let’s, let’s, uh, actually jump in the ring here and get involved. You know, I want something that’s, I’m gonna put nitrogen on late. What do we have that really likes late nitrogen, something I can really get a performance out of?
Speaker 1 (08:04):
And yeah, I, there’s a lot of, lot of factors that go into it. And I have a opinion that I don’t even know if our district sales manager would like, or anybody would like, I don’t like to plant all the brand new hybrids. Right. Uh, sure they have more yield potential, but if you’re raising 210 bushel corn every year, do you need that extra 300 bushel potential? If I think you’re better off to find a hybrid. Like, so we plant, we usually plant five hybrids here every year. We rotate through and try to get about a new hybrid every year. So the oldest hybrid we have is five years old. Is that really killing our yield potential? I don’t think so, because by the time that fifth year run comes around, we really know how to manage that hybrid. Yeah. We know where we wanna put it.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
We know what it likes. We know if it’s gonna stand. We know, we know how to manage that. Um, we’ve got a database of our own. So I think another thing is when, when you’re becoming involved as a farmer picking your hybrids, you need to understand, okay, I I, I planted this hybrid here for a reason. It performed, this was the weather. Okay, this is great. I want to try to mimic this as much as next, as much as I can next year. You know, if you’re on rotational acres, obviously you have to go to, you’re gonna be in a different field, but you kind of know your soil types, you know, your, you know, your yield capacities of a field, um, when you’re planting, you know, one hybrid one year, and then the next year you flip all your, all your hybrids. Well, what did you, what did you really learn, um, as far as a, as far as a management takeaway?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
So I maybe the, the seed selling guys don’t like that, but from a farmer perspective, and when I walk on your farm, yeah. I mean, yeah, if you switch to Agri Gold, it’s gonna be new, it’s gonna be new hybrids, um, that’s all there is to it. But we’ll start slow, you know, find, find your comfort level, get a couple different families out there and lets you, lets you build up to what you want. But once you get there, figure out what you want, how you’re gonna manage that, that, that family f uh, well, when the transition times come and you, and, you know, either the hybrid’s been discontinued and we move to a new, or just you feel like, okay, it’s been a long enough, let’s move to a new one. Okay. We moved to another family f relatively close maturity. Okay. It, it’s, it’s not that, that jumpy transition,
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It’s not quite as a drastic of a move. If you’re, you know, with agro you’re utilizing this family system, so you’re gonna switch varieties. So you have to go to a newer, or I’m sorry, a newer hybrid. Um, you could stay in that same family and expect similar performances from that high hybrid that you already have a, a comfort level
Speaker 1 (11:06):
With. Right, right. You know what you’re, you kinda know what you’re playing with. So, um, one topic that a lot of guys have talked about this year, uh, the past two years, really is Tar Spot. Oh, yeah. Um, and I think it’s great that Agri Gold has come out with their tar spot ratings in the, in the hybrid book. So, um, and they’re pretty, uh, what do I wanna say? Pretty honest, some of them have some pretty low bars, and that is with good reason. Oh
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, for sure. And I mean, we have applied out and we’re able to actually put some of this into some real world perspective. See, some of these tendencies, they go out there and look in the field and see what we’re getting. Does that correlate with kind of how they rank ’em in the book? And, you know, so far, I, I honestly believe this book is spot on.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah. And I, I, I respect their agronomist. I don’t know who does this. We deal with John Green, uh, which is a rockstar agronomist, but I don’t know who does all of their ratings in the books, but I really respect the fact that they will run these suckers down in their, in their rating system to a one or a two Yeah. And actually tell you that, okay, this thing sucks on tar Spot. All right.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You gotta be able to deal with it.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
When you’re looking at a, you know, I’m just gonna say it, when you’re looking at a decal book, it’s, you go the scale’s from one to five, but they only use from three to five. So really what’s that mean? Right.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That’s all on.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Right. You don’t have a, you don’t really have a true feel of what’s going on. Uh, of course, it’s been a couple years since I’ve planted decal, so I guess that’s, uh, they might’ve totally changed that, you know, bear has really got ’em on the ball, but it’s just, it’s aggravating to me when I was just a farmer to look at these books and say, oh, okay, all your hybrids are perfect. Let’s just plant ’em all. We should be good to go. Or let’s just plant one, you know? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Plant one over the whole farm.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah. It’ll be perfect. Why not? So, um, that, that brings me to another thing is every year is different.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Oh. So drastic.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I mean, weather planning date, just all kinds of different things. When are you gonna get your gdu? Do you get to be 110 degrees in July? Uh,
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Are you gonna have two weeks of Canadian wildfires?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, that’s what they tell me. It was, uh, it was, my goodness, that was ridiculous. Stunk. And Lord knows we didn’t have any sunshine for those two weeks. But, uh, genetic diversity. So, so when we go onto a farm, we’re on our farm. We’re not planting all family a’s all family B’s. We’re planting, you know, we’ve got an A, an F, AG and an H really, I think we have an A two F’s, AG, and an H. But, um, that spreads our risk. So we’ve got, we’ve got ones that, you know, like the cooler wet weather to start with. Ones that can handle a drier summer, um, short grain fill, long grain fill. We split apply all of our nitrogen. We just feel like that’s, that’s better. But we do go a little bit earlier on the family as, because they’re such a, such a flexi hybrid, they really want all of that. They want all of that nitrogen, potassium really kind of front loaded to build that ear. But the rest of them we’re split, we’re split applying nitrogen on everything. Um, fungicide on most of them we’re, we’re in the fungicide business. So we have the capabilities of doing it pretty quick. Right. Um, family s we know we have to do it every year, uh, but going through each family, we kind of know how we’re gonna manage it before it even comes outta the ground.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Exactly. Yeah. They’re broken down, so, well, I mean, you just know what ones are gonna need your attention earlier or what, uh, environment it might prefer. Is it gonna want or lower creek bottom ground, is it gonna want or clay old ground.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Right. And you know, say you have a, it’s a year where, um, you have a bad harvest. Yeah. You can’t, you can’t get in there. Okay. Would you be happy if you had all family Fs? No, because it’s probably not gonna stand until Christmas. Right. You know, if you’re harvesting it in early October, I mean early October, I mean, right now, early November, whatever, if you’re harvesting it right now, it’s probably gonna have your highest yield potential, um, hit or an a, I would say. Right. Depending on how it’s managed, of course. Oh. But it doesn’t have the knees underneath of it to stand until December. We’ve never had trouble with it going down. Right. But we try not to let it stand past Thanksgiving. Yeah. If we get in a situation where our Bluetooth leg doesn’t work Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and it actually starts raining on us, we may find out what its limits are.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah. And every year’s gonna be a little different. It only takes that one right wind
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
To, to get you. And then I don’t care what kind of hybrid you plant, mother nature will find a way to take it down. Oh,
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah. Wants to. Oh, yeah. I mean, I have been extremely impressed with Agri gold, stock quality.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Oh, I mean, we have not had to deal with down corn,
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Knock on wood,
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Not Yeah. Knock on wood for sure. Yeah. Near as much as what we have in the past. Uh, and I don’t know if that’s just different management practices, you know, better hybrids, better genetics. I mean, what are, I mean, a lot of factors can go into that.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah. We run a 16 row corn head, so it is not fun to run down corn trying to feed 20 feet from each end. Right. Um, so that is something that we, we focus on. We try to keep that plant as healthy as possible just to keep it, you know, upright through harvest. So there’s a lot of, I guess what we’re trying to say is your hybrid, your hybrid selection is extremely important. Diversity is extremely important. And I think your involvement in telling your seed rep, whether that’s from Agri Gold Channel, DeKalb, I don’t care, uh, your involvement in telling him what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, what tools do you have to do it. I mean, are you, are you wide dropping corn at V 10 or are you, you know, putting a calder in the middle of the row at V two? Um, I think there’s a totally different management styles and the hybrids, the way they’re going to respond to ’em, uh, are gonna be totally different. And if you tell your seedsmen that that’s, that’s what you’re gonna do, and he says, oh, they’re all the same, then I think you need to find a different seedsman. I don’t care what brand he’s selling you.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, absolutely. And I think communication is key. I mean, the, those management practices, those are questions that your seed seed rep needs to be asking you. But, uh, it’s something they have to be aware of if they’re presenting you hybrids. I mean, yes, they can show you the plot winners, um, they could show you some yield data from last year, but you know, they, a good seed salesman’s gonna get in there. He is gonna get to understand your practice, how you handle things, where, you know, are you, uh, are you an early planter? Are you putting, are you front loading all your nitrogen? Are you split applying your nitrogen? I mean, it’s all those little questions that, I mean, that, that’s what your seedsmen needs to know to present you hybrids. Right. So if they’re not asking those questions, you just send that guy down.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And I think a lot of things we leave out is, you know, price, uh, yeah. A lot of seed seed guys are trying to sell you the newest hybrids, which is gonna raise your cost average. Absolutely. And then they’ll throw in the 10 year old hybrid that lowers that down.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yeah. I gotta average it out.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
I think it’s a terrible mistake to buy seed by price. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, yes. You have to shop, you have to make sure that you’re not paying way too much. But to, to say, I want that hybrid because it’s $20 a bag cheaper, I think can really cost you out in the field.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Oh, yeah. And I mean, I mean, let’s face it. I mean, farming is about the bottom line. Right. But where are you gonna skimp? Is that where you wanna skimp is on seed?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, that’s, I mean, no matter what, if you’re gonna raise a crop, you have to plant the seed. Yeah. You don’t have to spray fungicide, which we found that out. I mean, in bad years, guys will not spray fungicide. Yep. Um, you have to have good seed. I like for, to have a good starter program in there to protect that seed.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Oh,
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Absolutely. Uh, get that thing up and running all of those stages, all of the vegetative stages, especially up to V five and up to V 10 in corn, that plant has to be just so fricking happy.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Oh yeah. I mean, you gotta, you’ve got to stay on top of that. I mean, you gotta get this corn out of the ground. You gotta keep it moving.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah. Build, build a 20 by 50 and let dry weather, knock it back to, you know Yeah. 20 by 20.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah. You don’t want the, you don’t want management practices to be your yield limiting factor.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Yeah. Don’t let it, don’t let it tass on. You only got a, you know, a 14 by 30 to play with. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
You wanna
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Be able, we will. I mean, some of these hybrids, that’s what you’re gonna be playing with anyways, but the kernels are bigger than your thumbnail.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Oh yeah. That’s a hard thing to look at too. Um, <laugh> that is something that’s fun to talk about though. Um,
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Especially in the plots you
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Go out there. It’s, it’s not, I mean, yes. Awesome. Let’s have some big, you know, forearm ears out there, man. Some big ones, but, um, you got a few of those, but consistency’s key, right? Oh, for sure. So you don’t necessarily have to have these four arm ears to make, you know, to cash a check at the end of the year. I mean, we’re getting paid off test weight. Right. So looking at that, and like I say that not, does not have to be these big monstrous ears, even though that’s what everybody wants to see. Right?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Right. And, and like you say, consistency is super important. Um, you don’t want to have your, your super forearm or your 18 by 45, and then you go to the next one and it’s, it’s 14 by 20.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
I’d rather have, you know, 16 by forties all the way across the field.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Absolutely. Yep. You’re looking at ears, you know, just don’t pick ’em off the road. So I
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Get in there. Yeah. That first row. I mean, Doughty’s taught us that, that first row sunlight. I mean, it gets the ears so much bigger. That’s the reason he’s raising it, what, four or six rows at a time. Right. <laugh>. It’s uh, that’s a wild concept. I don’t see ourselves going to that anytime soon, but
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah. Well, if you could replicate that in row through the whole field, we’d all be happy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah. So I guess the big takeaway from today is we really just want you guys to, to think about how hybrids respond and why they respond. Not necessarily. Okay. This is, this is stat right here. When you think about plot winners, how often do plot winners do it twice in a row?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Um, that would be 11% of the time,
Speaker 1 (22:34):
11% of the time. That’s an agri gold, uh, statistic.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
So don’t build your hybrid lineup out of the plot, out of the plot. Boom. I think that is a tool to be considered. You need to look at, you need to look at that, you need to look at these hybrids going to yield and trials. I mean, there ain’t no doubt about that, but just going through and picking all the number ones, I don’t think that’s, that’s not the way it’s,
Speaker 1 (23:01):
And I like their, the front of their book, page six, I’m sitting here looking at the book right now. Uh, they have their family winners across every year. Uh, so in 16 it was an H 17 and F-G-A-F-H-F. Uh, so you don’t see them winning every year. And that’s because the weather’s different. You’ve got hot and wet with a, or Yeah. Hot and wet with a medium long or medium green fill period. Cool. And wet long grain fill period, warm and wet, medium green fill period. So all of those factors play in and it’s like, I think guys walk corn until it shoots ears. They see that it’s got an ear and then they go look at it when they harvest. Yep. If you think about Greenfield, period, we have figured out so much about Greenfield period in the past 18 months here.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, absolutely. Just looking at environmental factors and then, you know, we’ve grown to have a great understanding of, of the field GX program. Yep. And, uh, just really getting to see the hybrid response to what environmental conditions we’ve been given this year has really, really enlightened us as to how this all works.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
And the field GX is not a trait. It’s not anything, every company could do this. Literally, they just don’t. And I think that really, um, I know as a farm, from a farmer perspective, really puts a hindrance on the farmer trying to make decisions. ’cause you, you have the same seed salesman come to you, Hey, this one was a plot winner last year. I think we really need to put it in your lineup. It’s only $45 a bag higher than everything else you’re planting. I think it’s gonna be a real rockstar. You go walk, you go walk fields with ’em the next year. Yeah. It just that, that cool spring we had just kind of knocked it on its butt. Yeah. Okay. Yes, that’s fine. That’s why I like to plant consistent hybrids, you know, and you have to bring in new ones. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not planting stuff from 2012. Right. That would be asinine. But, um, we keeping some hybrids on the farm that you’re comfortable with and knowing where to place them, knowing what they like, I think gives you a huge advantage, um, in the middle of summer when that thing’s really rocking and rolling and you know how to push it.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah. And having a comfort level with, with a hybrid lineup is a great, it’s a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah. So, well, I think we’ve rambled on long enough, guys. It’s time to buy seed. Think, uh, think for yourselves a little bit. I know, I know that you guys deal with good seedsmen. There’s a lot of ’em out there in the countryside. Don’t be afraid to trust them, but don’t be afraid to question them either. That’s why they get paid.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Exactly. That’s, that’s it. They get paid to answer questions. It’s not just, not just a lot of orders.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
And please remember, even if you’re not planning, if you’re not planning agri gold, uh, diversity is more than just a maturity. Absolutely. Uh, there, there’s, if you’re planning all race horses and you have a workhorse year, you’re in trouble. If you plan all workhorses and you have a racehorse year, you’re gonna be disappointed because your neighbors are raising two 50 and you’re raising, you know, two 10. So, uh, just keep that diversity on your farm. Learn your hybrids, know what you’re, how you’re gonna manage ’em. And, uh, there’s lots of tools out there to get the job done. So, um, you got anything else, Zach?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
No, I think that’s pretty good. Definitely reflect on, reflect on whatever just said, diversity diversity’s key.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
All right. Well, uh, thanks a lot for listening guys. Please be sure to rate and review us on your, on your favorite pod catcher. Uh, shoot us a Google review at Easy Custom Ag. Really would appreciate that. And, uh, we’ll see you next time out in the field.