Hard as a Rock: Field compaction can cut corn yields by up to 20%

摘要

Six-foot-tall corn with stunted ears was a common sight in Luke Huysman's fields this past season due to extreme drought conditions. In the years prior, Huysman saw the same short corn but for a different reason. The contributing problem then was compaction. Plaguing 600 to 700 corn acres, compaction was evident wherever trucks, heavily laden with manure, had traveled over the gently rolling fields. Today, the problem is basically nonexistent on his Fabius, N.Y., farm, which includes 4,400 acres of corn and alfalfa-grass hay and a 1,400-head dairy cow operation. Huysman owns the farm with two partners.