Zone Offense

By Boyd Kidwell
Progressive Farmer Contributing Editor

As a young football player, Ralph Britt gained recognition on the gridiron as a tight end with the North Carolina State University (N.C. State) Wolfpack and then, for a season (1987), with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But these days, the owner of Britt Farms is recognized as one of his state's premier corn growers.

My football days now seem like a lifetime ago, says the 49-year-old farmer, from Calypso, in eastern North Carolina.

While attending N.C. State, Britt earned a master's degree in agricultural economics that has proven more valuable to his business than his pass-catching prowess. On the football field, the 6-foot 3-inch, 240-pound Britt was known for grit and determination. Growing corn, on the other hand, requires more brains than brawn. Football did give him the discipline to give as much focus to corn as he did to catching passes.

Irrigation has changed the game plan on Britt's operation. The farm operates 15 pivots, including three towable irrigation units. In all, one-third of his 3,000-acre operation is now irrigated. It took Britt a decade to get there. But it has proven to be an invaluable production asset, giving him the confidence to be more aggressive with yield goals.

Eastern North Carolina weather often does not cooperate with high-yield plans. In some years, such as 2014, adequate rains do fall at the right time, and nonirrigated yields can run more than 200 bushels per acre. More often than not, long periods of dry weather if not outright drought hold dryland yields to only half that. Irrigation gives Britt the flexibility to roll with the weather. It allows him to:

-- Plant high-yielding hybrids that respond well to adequate water and a good growing environment.

-- Plant at higher seed populations. His best yields result from a final plant population of approximately 34,000 plants per acre.

-- Spoon-feed nitrogen through the pivots at times when the crop will respond best to a nutrient application, such as during growth spurts and at the vegetative stages particularly important to that final yield.

-- Take advantage of variable-rate planting on variable soil types.

The ability to irrigate assures Britt that the corn he plants at higher populations will have the water needed to take advantage of the greater yield production.

His highest-yielding fields received 200 pounds per acre of nitrogen before and during planting in 2014. Britt applied 100 pounds per acre of additional nitrogen in five applications through his pivot during the growing season.

Britt was one of the early group of farmers to begin growing corn under pivots in North Carolina. He installed his first pivots in 1996 to apply effluent from hog lagoons.

As he witnessed the yield gains from irrigation and learned more about irrigation management, Britt added additional pivots. He has good sources of groundwater, and most of his pivots are fed by wells. He is fortunate to have the water resources. Finding adequate water is one of the chief obstacles farmers face for installing pivots in North Carolina. Some areas don't have large, underground aquifers to feed the wells, and surface supplies dry up in droughts.

Britt does face another obstacle common across North Carolina: Our biggest problem with expanding irrigation is finding new fields with the right size and shape for pivots, he says. It's cost-prohibitive to put in a pivot that covers less than 50 acres.

BUILDING A WINNER

Britt's program is 20 years in the making. It paid off in 2014 with his 302-bushel-per-acre irrigated entry in the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) National Corn Yield Contest. This marked Britt's first official 300-bushel yield and North Carolina's first entry of more than 300 bushels per acre in the NCGA contest. (North Carolina corn growers have produced 300-bushel entries for the North Carolina Corn Yield Contest. That contest is hosted independently of the national program by the Corn Growers Association of North Carolina and administered by the North Carolina Extension Service).

Britt's whole-farm average for 2014 was 204 bushels per acre. That far exceeded the 2013 state corn average of 144 bushels per acre.

Britt farms in Duplin County, an area defined by sandy soils. Livestock production, especially hogs, pigs and poultry, is a major focus. The county's crop farmers produce tobacco, vegetables, hay and small grains.

STARTING LINEUP

In 2014, Britt planted four corn hybrids. The 302-bushel yield came from Dekalb DKC 64-69. This hybrid is a 114 Relative Maturity (RM) corn that is broadly adapted across the southern and eastern Corn Belt. In addition to DKC 64-69, Britt also planted DKC 68-03, DKC 66-97 and DKC 67-58.

We've found some of the higher-end varieties don't perform well under our conditions in eastern North Carolina, Britt notes. We stay with well-rounded genetic packages because, even on the irrigated fields, we have areas outside the pivots that don't receive irrigation water.

Britt plants corn in 30-inch rows with an eight-row John Deere 1700 planter. He varies seeding rates from 24,000 to 38,000 seeds per acre depending on soil types and production histories. The 302-bushel corn crop had a final plant population of about 34,000 plants per acre.

GAME PLAN

Britt's production process involves a multistep weed-control program. He starts with a burndown application of 1 quart of glyphosate per acre. He applies 1 quart of atrazine mixed with 15 gallons per acre of nitrogen as a preemergence herbicide application behind the planter.

Britt's postemergence weed-control strategy includes 3.6 pints per acre of Halex GT mixed with 1 pint of atrazine. Halex GT contains three modes of action to combat weed resistance. Palmer amaranth (pigweed) frequently is resistant to glyphosate in eastern North Carolina and is a serious weed-control problem.

Corn planting starts in that part of the state in late March. Britt runs a strip-till subsoiler hitched to the front of the planter, in tandem, for a one-pass planting operation. The strip-tiller has ripper shanks for subsoiling, cutting coulters to slice through crop residue and rolling baskets that provide a smooth seedbed.

Tillage in the row improves seed-to-soil contact for enhanced seed germination and vigorous early plant growth. Subsoiling makes it easier for plant roots, moisture and nutrients to move through the soil. Running the strip-tiller with the planter attached keeps the seedbed moist and helps the operator keep the planter on the strip-tilled seedbed. At the same time, strip-till leaves plant residue between the rows.

Having our strip-till rig hitched to the planter helps us get uniform stand emergence. As you move up in plant population, it's important to have uniform emergence, Britt says. At higher plant populations, we want all of the seedlings up within a day. If it takes four or five days for a stand to emerge, we see lower yields, he adds.

QUICK SNAP

To support young seedlings' growth, Britt applies 10 gallons per acre of 19-19-0 plus 2% sulfur at planting in a 2 x 2 application (2 inches to the side and 2 inches under the row).

In many years, Britt applies a fungicide post-tassel. In 2014, he didn't see signs of plant disease at this stage and decided not to apply a fungicide. Unfortunately, his corn was later hit by the worst outbreak of southern rust to blow into North Carolina in 10 years.

Southern rust is usually not a problem for North Carolina corn growers because its spores arrive late in the season and don't cause yield loss. In 2014, early warm weather and moist conditions encouraged an early infestation that caused yield losses.

To catch up with the disease outbreak, Britt aerially applied fungicides in his worst fields. He used Quilt Xcel and Headline AMP but still experienced yield loss.

If we had applied a fungicide as a preventative, I think having some protection in the plant would have slowed down the late-season disease pressure. Based on this experience, I think applying a fungicide as a preventative on irrigated corn is a justifiable expense, he says.

Growing 302-bushel corn may not be as thrilling as catching a touchdown pass for the Wolfpack or covering a kickoff for the Steelers, but the former footballer gets a kick out of producing them and participating in the corn yield contests.

We don't farm for contest yields, but it's fun to have an entry in the NCGA contest, he says. We're finding what works on each particular farm and soil type. Every farm is different, and every year is different.

(ES/AG/SK)

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