April 7, 2000

Rainfall across much of West and Central Texas this spring has corn growers smiling.

"Moisture is reasonably good in most areas of the state. South Texas and the Wintergarden is still dry, along with some areas of the coast, but the rest of the dryland areas are wet up—not as fully charged as we could be, but adequate," Dr. Cloyce Coffman, Extension agronomist, reported in early March. "I would say we’re pretty well on target planting wise, from a calendar standpoint. We have had some interruptions with showers in Central Texas. We’re not hurting as far as time’s concerned. We have some good stands in the corn that has been planted. We’re in pretty good shape."

Coffman expects the number of acres planted to corn to be very similar in number to last year’s. With prices for all feedgrain commodities expected to be low, he said price will not be a factor in deciding whether or not to choose corn or sorghum or vice versa.

"A number of farmers think corn is an attractive option because of their insurance coverage, but aflatoxin is a risk. They have to decide according to the fields they work. On dryland, sorghum has some advantages. It’s more forgiving with regard to rainfall. The farmer has to decide on the fields he’s got. If he has good, deep soil and good water-holding capacity, at planting time he will probably plant corn. If it’s a little more droughty soil, and if he runs out of water early, he’s favored to go to sorghum."

Coffman doesn’t expect to see any significant increase of Bt varieties over 1999.

"There was some interest in how Bts would affect aflatoxin in the dryland parts of the state. In the Panhandle, I expect a fair amount because of the corn borer, but I don’t expect a major increase," he said.

The agronomist expects a lot of growers who haven’t already converted to 30-inch rows to consider it, but suggests only a few will go narrower than that.

"There are a few producers in the Panhandle who continue to do it. I don’t see a real rapid shift to less than 30 inches primarily because on corn, it takes a different kind of harvesting head on the combine, and most of those are limited in scale because of the extra weight," Coffman explained. "Manufacturers of corn heads are not set up to handle more than 12 rows. If you narrow down, you have to make more trips to get the acreage harvested. Until the equipment can handle more rows, it’s not a good option."

Coffman said planters pose a similar problem. They are designed for 12 rows, not 16, which is needed for 20-inch rows. Production practices, he said, are ahead of the manufacturing at this point.