DeKalb County Ag Mag - Spring 2022

agmag

DeKalb County

SPRING 2022

WHY WHEAT? DEKALB COUNTY FARMER DISCUSSES TRADITION & ECONOMIC BOOST OF GROWING COVER CROP

RAINFALL SIMULATOR EVALUATES RESIDUE MANAGEMENT CARBON PROGRAMS OFFER OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT ZONES FOCUS NUTRIENTS IN SPECIFIC ACRES

A Publication of

INSURE With the Best in the Field

P ERS ON A L • FA R M • C O M M E R C IAL We are a local agency providing our clients comprehensive solutions to meet their needs.

If at any time you would like a review of your insurance program, please contact us.

We welcome the opportunity to be of service to you!

Awe InsurAnce Agency 428 W. Main Street • Genoa

815-784-6614 SM-CL1960075

2 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

agmag

DeKalb County

4

WATERSHED WORK

Conservationists bring in all stakeholders for stormwater management

6

A BOOST WITH WHEAT

DeKalb County farmer outlines the value of adding wheat into crop rotation

9 12 14

SIMULATING RAINFALL

Researchers evaluate residue management

A LOOK AT A CARBON PROGRAM

Programs pay to implement greener practices

DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT ZONES Focusing nutrients in appropriate areas can equalize cost per bushel

agmag

DeKalb County

Published by Shaw Media Project Manager: Lisa Angel

Design & Layout: Julie Barichello Articles and advertisements are property of Shaw Media. No portion of DeKalb County Ag Mag may be produced without written consent of the publisher.

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 3

WORK BRINGS IN ALL STAKEHOLDERS

By Jeannine Otto | AgriNews Publications

ean Johnson knows what it feels like, as a farmer, to see a season’s hard work washed away by flooding.

“I farmed right along the Kishwaukee River.

I always tell people it’s because of that river that I have this job today, because flooding was an issue when I was farming. It beat me up and I finally had to just say — this isn’t working anymore. And that’s what brought me here,” Johnson said.

He has been the resource conservationist at the DeKalb County Soil and Water Conservation District for 20 years.

In 2014, county officials decided they wanted to take a proactive approach to stormwater management and planning, in the form of developing a watershed plan.

The idea of developing a plan before it was needed was a step ahead in itself.

Funding for the watershed planning comes from a variety of sources, including the DeKalb County Community Foundation.

“That is actually pretty proactive. A lot of times, in watershed planning, you’ll see it occurring because there’s an issue. There’s something going on in the area that needs to be addressed. But in this situation, we’ve got the county saying we’d like to get watershed planning done in our whole county,” Johnson said.

The area that the county planners decided to focus on was the East Branch of the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River.

The Kishwaukee River originates near Woodstock and runs for 63 miles to the Rock River. The river flows through six counties, including DeKalb County and the city of DeKalb.

Since the term “watershed” can be confusing, Johnson uses a common habit.

“I always tell people if you want to think about when you step into the bathtub or shower and turn the shower on, the water from the shower finds its outlet at the drain at the end of the tub. So, to give a description of a watershed, you look at it as an area where, on the landscape, water will drain to

an outlet. That could be a stream or a river,” he said.

The word “planning” also can make some stakeholders nervous.

“This is not any type of a regulatory process. Basically, we’re trying to gather as much information about the watershed as we can and then to present that to the folks who live in the watershed. The goal is to try to work together to improve water quality in the watershed,” Johnson said.

He said one of the ongoing goals of the watershed work is to encourage the use of more structures that can improve water quality when it comes to agricultural lands.

Those structures can be eligible for funding from a variety of sources, including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants.

“One of the things we really try to encourage, especially along these drainage ways, is we’d like to see filter strips put in along there to help protect these streams.

A lot of the riparian corridors along these streams are very much degraded. If you’re looking at the wildlife and the fish benefits from these ditches and such, they are not in the best condition for that type of thing,” Johnson said.

He said he understands that drainage is the top priority when it comes to ag lands and one of his tasks is to promote, educate and encourage farmers to utilize more conservation tools.

While the adoption of those structures has been steady, Johnson said he would like to see more.

“I haven’t seen the increase I’d like to see.

I think it’s more steady. There are a lot of opportunities for people to do some of these practices on their properties. There are some of these pothole wetlands and such where they are struggling to get a crop off of that area anyway. Why not put it in a program where you take it out of production and get cost-share on it? I wish we could see more.

We’re not seeing a major increase in those projects,” he said.

4 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

Dean Johnson is a resource conservationist with the DeKalb County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Johnson said the possibility also exists for farmers to work with urban watershed planners on watershed projects that benefit both groups. For example, wastewater treatment facilities in urban areas could work with ag landowners and help fund conservation projects.

“We haven’t gotten to this yet, but I think it might someday occur where those urban officials might be able to help cost share stream edges and stream-type practices because it will benefit them. It will show that they are doing things in the community to improve water quality and also in the output of their discharge into the river. So, I think that there’s opportunity for partnerships with urban and ag areas, because watersheds don’t have boundaries. So, they all need to work toward the same goal,” Johnson said.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.

Member FDIC

THROUGH THICK AND THIN.

Member FDIC

When a bank is with you When a bank is with you and the peaks andunderstands understands the peaks and valleys of Agriculture, and valleys of Agriculture, those small details mean everything. those small details mean everything.

/agribusiness

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 5

GOING with the

There are many benefits of growing wheat — erosion control, nutrient cash crop, cash and cover crop, weed suppressor, soil builder and organic matter source, and spring pasture.

6 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

G DEKALB COUNTY FARMER GETS BOOST WITH WHEAT

By Jeannine Otto AgriNews Publications

F

or Gene Larson, raising wheat is about more than tradition — it’s a practice that makes dollars and sense.

“I grow wheat for several reasons and it’s not all for economic reasons,” said Larson, who started farming in 1975.

Today, Larson, who also serves as Shabbona Township road commissioner, a post he’s held for 24 years, has mostly stepped back from his farming operation. His son, Dan, has taken over the bulk of the farm duties.

But Gene Larson still farms around 200 acres.

“I never want to quit farming. I think that’s something that’s always with you and you never want to leave or give it up, so I’m still farming enough acres to keep my interest,” he said.

Raising wheat in northern Illinois was more common when Larson farmed

with his own father.

“I helped my dad farm and we always grew wheat, so I just continued on with it,” he said.

That continues to this day.

Larson said he finds that raising wheat can be a benefit to his bottom line in a couple of different ways.

“One of the reasons I grow wheat is for the crop rotation. You can put a crop of corn on a wheat field and it’s good for 10 bushels an acre more on the corn. I’ve seen that, year in and year out,” he said.

Wheat, which is harvested in midsummer, also provides another boost.

“It’s a little cash flow in the middle of summer, when you get kind of a dry spell. You have real estate taxes due at the end of September and it gives you that little cash flow that you can use to pay expenses at that time of year,” Larson said.

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 7

“It’s a little cash flow in the middle of summer, when you get kind of a dry spell.

You have real estate taxes due at the end of September and it gives you that little cash flow that you can use to pay expenses at that time of year.”

The wheat crop also offers a fertilizer boost in the form of wheat straw, which Larson keeps on the field and then tills back into the ground.

“I’m not a big fan of baling wheat straw because there’s a lot of fertilizer value in wheat straw. I like to run it through the combine, blow it back onto the ground and plow it under for the corn crop the next year. There’s a lot of potash in wheat straw,” he said.

Harvesting the crop gives the Larsons an opportunity to troubleshoot any equipment problems and tune up combines and tractors before the corn and soybean harvest rush.

“My son and I like to get the equipment out and try it out before we get into the big fall harvest. You go out in July with your combine and semis and you see what needs fixing before you get into the big rush for fall, so that’s an advantage.

It gives you a chance to see if there’s something you missed last fall in the combine when you put it away. Then you’ve got the rest of the summer to work on it and get it fixed,” Gene Larson said.

He utilizes fungicide applications on his wheat, something that is necessary, he believes, in the colder and wetter climate of northern Illinois.

“Wheat doesn’t like wet, cool weather and that’s when you get diseases, like scab. Fungicides are something I’ve been doing lately that I never used to do and it does pay.

It’s $30 an acre and you have to fly it on, but you’ll get that back out of it,” he said.

Larson said the flat, black soil of northern Illinois, famous for record-

8 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

breaking corn and soybean yields, isn’t particularly conducive to large wheat yields.

“DeKalb County is known for its flat black soils. We grow corn like nobody else. Wheat typically doesn’t like flat, black ground because that soil has a tendency to be wet and wet weather brings disease in wheat and that’s what really hurts your yield,” he said.

Some of Larson’s best wheat years happened in years that were drier.

“I have 20 acres of wheat this year.

Last year we had 50 acres. It was one of my best crops of wheat, moneywise, that I’ve ever grown in my 40 plus years of farming. We got almost $7 a bushel for it and there was no dock. The two best years I had growing wheat were 2012 and last year,” he said.

Larson sells his wheat to the DeLong Co. elevator in Waterman.

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, in 2021, DeKalb County farmers planted 6,500 acres of winter wheat and harvested 5,950 acres, with a countywide yield of 469,000 bushels and an average countywide yield of 78.8 bushels per acre.

Dan Larson is carrying on the tradition of growing wheat and one of the farmers he rents ground from even requires it.

“He rents a farm from a man who always had wheat. It’s in the lease that you have to grow so many acres of wheat each year. He believes in that rotation. He’s an older guy and that’s how he farmed and that’s how he wants it done,” Gene Larson said.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com.

Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.

Researchers use

RAINFALL SIMULATOR to evaluate residue management

By Martha Blum n AgriNews Publications

he energy from raindrops hitting bare soil will detach the soil particles and disperse them, which initiates erosion.

“In a heavy-rain event, soil particles can splash out three to five feet,” said Dennis Busch, senior scientist and director of agroecosystems research at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm.

“That can be displacing up to 90 tons of soil per acre,” said Busch during a presentation at the Better Beans event hosted by the Illinois Soybean Association in Sycamore. “That’s not loss, but the rain is dispersing the soil in the field due to the rainfall impact.”

When this happens, crusting can develop,

which reduces infiltration rates.

“It comes down to residue management because that protects the soil surface from the raindrop impact,” Busch said. “Cover crops affect the hydrology because they are transpiring a lot of water instead of it running off.”

The researchers use a rainfall simulator that replicates a natural rainfall event in fields.

“We are using the simulator to evaluate production systems with regard to soil erosion, infiltration rates and runoff,” Busch said.

The simulator is 10 feet wide by 10 feet long by 10 feet high.

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 9

Dennis Busch (above left), senior scientist and director of agroecosystems research at the University of WisconsinPlatteville’s Pioneer Farm, speaks during the Better Beans event hosted by the Illinois Soybean Association in Sycamore. Andrew Cartmill (above right), assistant professor of soil and crop science at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, also spoke at the event.

“We are trying to get the nozzle elevated high enough to create enough energy in the raindrops,” Busch said. “In the field we try to find a location that represents the entire field with a slope typically around 5%.”

For the study, the rate of rainfall is set at 2.75 inches per hour.

“The duration of these experiments vary because it depends on how long it takes to create the first runoff,” Busch said. “Then the rainfall continues for 30 minutes.”

The researchers collect the total volume of runoff during the rain event and send samples to labs for the analytical work.

Collecting data from the rainfall simulator is a two-day event.

“On day one, we go through the sequence, and day two we do it again, which is the data we use for analysis,” Busch said. “That’s so we have consistency across the sites.”

“We are trying to get physical, chemical and biological indicators by following NRCS methods for soil health metrics,” said Andrew Cartmill, assistant professor of soil and crop science at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

“We are looking at earthworm counts, soil respiration, soil temperature, soil moisture, soil stability and bulk density.”

Busch discussed data collected from a farm

10 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

in Jo Daviess County that has long-term, no-till fields with a variety of cover crops. The four demonstration plots included corn with no cover crop, black medic cover crop with corn planted into a rye crop rolled, corn planted into rolled rye and corn with interseeded clover.

“We saw a little higher runoff from the plot with no cover crop at 30% runoff versus 25% runoff, and remember this field was all no-till,” Busch said.

The no cover crop and black medic plots had the highest amounts of soil loss.

“They had 300 pounds of soil loss,” Busch said. “The soil loss drops down dramatically with more cover to 24 pounds per acre on the interseeded clover.”

“There were more earthworms on the plot with no cover crop and that is not what we expected,” Cartmill added. “We’re still trying to work out why, but the problem with earthworm counts is the timing, it’s like a snapshot.”

Soil respiration is higher where there are living roots, Cartmill said.

“Where we have living roots, the soil is very stable,” he said. “There is not much difference where we have no cover or low cover, but we’re working in a long-term, no-till field.”

The researchers also talked about a project that included multiple sites in southwest

YOUR LOCAL DEALER

CELEBRATING OVER

25 YEARS OF SUCCESS

SYSTEM DESIGN &� SERVICE PNEUMATIC SYSTEMS ������ ������ �������•� DRYERS ������ •� ��������� ������� DUMP GRAIN BINS ����PITS ����•� BUCKET ������ELEVATORS ���������•� AUGERS ������•� ����� ����

THE DESIGN, THE BUILD, THE SERVICE...WE DO IT RIGHT!

Wisconsin and northwest Illinois. One of the fields was at a dairy operation where corn was grown for silage, manure was injected and there were several tillage passes before planting. Another field was at a dairy operation that used less tillage, injected manure and a rye cover crop was planted.

“For the no-till field, the infiltration rate was 73% and the intensively tilled field had runoff at 70%,” Busch said.

There was also quite a difference in soil erosion between the fields.

“The field with convention tillage had 1,300 pounds of soil loss, which is reflective of what we see in edge of field data when you have that vulnerable condition overlapped with an intensive event,” Busch said.

“It’s the same with phosphorus, there was over one pound of loss per acre in the intensive tilled cropland versus less than 0.2 pounds where you have reduced runoff and soil loss,” he said.

Busch plans to continue research on different cover crops and different management systems with cover crops.

“We are looking at how to get the most benefit if you have to prioritize where you are going to put a cover crop,” he said. “We want to know the return on investment if you have limited resources.”

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-410-2254, or mblum@ shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

Taylor Golz

Lending Offi Of Officer cer NMLS #1529174 (844) 426-6733 (608) 757-9734

COMPEER.COM/HOMEFINANCING

NMLS #619731 ©2019 All rights reserved.

Compeer Financial, ACA is an Equal Credit Opportunity Lender and Equal Opportunity Provider.

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 11

TRANSITIONING TO A

GREENER FOOTPRINT

Prepare your data now for opportunities with carbon programs

By Martha Blum l AgriNews Publications

C

g Accordin . .S U to the tal n e m Environ on Protecti , Agency re u lt agricu ts n u o acc of for 10% n’s o the nati e s u o h green ns. io s is m gas e

arbon programs are here to stay with the increased government and corporate focus on agriculture as a climate solution.

“The Fortune 500 companies have made corporate commitments to greenhouse gas reductions and they are driven by consumer demands and employee retention,” said Joe Winchell, conservation agronomist for AgOutcomes and the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.

“For companies like PepsiCo or Target, 80% of their footprint happens out of their direct control through goods and services they purchase, which at the root of that is the farmer,” said Winchell during a presentation at the Better Beans event hosted by the Illinois Soybean Association. “PepsiCo doesn’t have a team to work with farmers and that’s why they need to come through organizations like us.”

The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund started in 2020 as a 9,500-acre pilot.

“We expanded to 120,000 acres last year and we worked in Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and the Chesapeake Bay watershed,” Winchell said. “In 2022, we’re going to expand into Indiana and there will be 50,000 acres available in Illinois.”

This carbon program pays farmers based on outcomes — not practices.

“What makes us different is we stack the

12 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

carbon program with a water quality program,” the conservation agronomist said. “We pay up to $40 per acre with the average in 2021 across 120,000 acres of $35 per acre, so that’s the value of the water piece.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is a large buyer of water quality improvements, Winchell said.

“In Iowa, we work with the city of Ames and Cedar Rapids wastewater treatment plants and we also work with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship,” he said.

Once the fund establishes outcome purchase agreements with customers, then they can target a geography and enroll farmers.

“I sit down with farmers to understand what they are currently doing and what they want to add,” Winchell said. “We have no maximum or minimum and we can scale a program across your whole operation.”

Every farming operation is different in the type of practices that are utilized and the changes that the farmer wants to make.

“We enter information like fertilizer or manure applied, tillage practices and the planting and harvesting operations to get a baseline crop rotation,” Winchell said. “We also enter the new practices such as going from conventional tillage to strip-till or planting a cover crop.”

Two USDA-supported models are used to determine the greenhouse gas emissions and how the changes in farming practices will impact the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus loss.

“That’s how the payment is calculated,” Winchell said.

“Tillage emits carbon dioxide into the air, so you can sequester carbon by reducing tillage or adding a cover crop will take in carbon dioxide and it creates biomass,” he said. “So, we buy carbon credits from you and we sell those carbon credits to a company.”

Once farmers know the potential payment, they have the option to decide if they want to sign a oneyear contract.

“It is about a 24-hour turnaround for the model results, so we can have a payment estimate in 24 to 36 hours,” Winchell said.

After signing a contract with the fund, the farmer receives 50% of the payment upfront, which they can use to help pay for the implementation costs.

“We visit every field in the program and once we confirm you did everything you said you would do, we pay the second half of the payment,” Winchell said.

Since weather has such a large impact on farming activities, sometimes all the practices planned by a farmer cannot be completed.

“If you have to do an unforeseen tillage pass, we rerun the models and calibrate the second payment appropriately,” Winchell said.

“A lot of companies are getting more interested in biodiversity, so that is something we’re working on pretty hard,” he said. “Practices that also create biodiversity benefits could be stacked on to increase payments to farmers.”

As more carbon programs develop, Winchell said, farmers should talk to someone they trust, look at the contract terms and length and determine what happens to their data.

“Our commitment is to always pay the farmer the most we can,” Winchell said. “If we negotiate a price with PepsiCo next year that is higher than what we got this year, then the farm payment goes up.”

The most important step for farmers to take now, he said, is to organize their farm data.

“One of the most time-consuming parts is entering your data so we can run the models,” he said.

Winchell expects the demand for low-carbon commodities to increase, including renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

“As things evolve, payments are going to be tied to the commodity,” he said. “Ethanol plants may tie a premium to a bushel of corn that has been produced with sustainable farming practices, so that will require accounting and tracking of how that corn was produced.”

For more information about the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, go to www.theoutcomesfund.com.

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-410-2254, or mblum@ shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

“I sit down with farmers to understand what they are currently doing and what they want to add. We have no maximum or minimum and we can scale a program across your whole operation.”

Joe Winchell Conservation agronomist

Harvesting Your Land’s Potential  Buy/Sell Land  Auction  Appraisal

Rely on our experts to privately sell or auction your land.

We can also assist in purchasing farmland and appraising your current acreage.

hbtbank.com 833-797-FARM

AGRICULTURAL SERVICES Heartland Bank and Trust Co., licensed real estate broker corporation in Illinois.

Timothy L. Woods, Designated Managing Broker

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 13

Getting in the

ZONE Developing management zones focuses nutrients in appropriate areas

By Martha Blum AgriNews Publications

14 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Spring 2022

The goal for Jay Riddell is to equalize the cost per bushel for growing corn or soybeans across an entire field.

“Our goal is not to maximize yield or reduce inputs because in areas that we know we can raise 300-bushel corn, I expect to spend more per acre on that area of the field,” said Riddell who grows corn and soybeans on about 2,500 acres.

“I want my cost per bushel through all areas of the field to be the same,” he said during

presentation at the Better Beans event hosted by the Illinois Soybean Association in Sycamore. “That’s what I consider to be a success.”

Riddell farms near Sparland and his family has raised Hereford cattle since 1916.

“We are three miles off the Illinois River and we have a lot of Class A soils all the way to timber soils,” he said. “I also farm near Putnam and that farm has good black sand all the way to blow sand and there is irrigation.”

All of Riddell’s acres are strip-tilled and he also develops management zones for his fields.

“We try to strip-till in the fall and we do run a little bit in the spring,” said Riddell, who also does custom strip-tilling. “We try to get the strip-till rig over 6,000 acres per year and this fall it did 5,000 acres.”

To start the process of developing management zones, Riddell gives each field a yield goal.

“We’ve had yield monitors for a long time, so we have 15 to 20 years of yield history,” he said. “We use soil types and variables like where there is pattern tile or irrigation.”

Each management zone within a field is assigned a percentage.

“If the field goal is 250 bushels and another area is 80% of that, then the yield goal for that area is 200 bushels,” Riddell said.

“I work with Progressive Ag Services for our consulting and they help me with prescriptions, setting up management zones and data processing,” he said.

“We hire our soil testing, tissue testing, aerial application and planting of cover crops. We try to handle the rest of the jobs including spraying and we apply the dry fertilizer through the strip-till rig.”

This machine has two 6-ton compartments.

“The potash is in one compartment and the DAP and elemental sulfur is a blend in the other compartment,” Riddell said. “We blend the products from the two compartments as we go across the field.”

Riddell works with seed dealers of several different brands.

“We talk about the hybrids they think will respond well to our management system,” he

said. “I kick the numbers to Progressive and they make me a prescription for every variety for every field.”

Checks are run in most of Riddell’s fields with a standard population.

“Then we can see if we’re doing a good job of setting up the management zones and if the seed guys did a good job on the population,” Riddell said.

“When we started this, we were at 34,500 population,” he said. “One thing I didn’t expect was when we lowered that to 28,000 or 29,000 in the poorer areas, the corn yield picked up.”

Riddell typically plants all his soybeans before corn.

“We tend to push the early side and last year we started planting beans on April 5,” he said. “I think that’s why we’ve raised some pretty good beans.”

Cover crops are drilled in right behind the combine.

“I want the cover crops to get up and then I strip through them,” Riddell said.

Each farmer should have a reason for planting cover crops, the farmer said.

“Our reason is mainly to build organic matter and with strip-till and rolling ground, we can have some erosion down our strip,” Riddell said. “When it’s warm, thawing and we get a 1-inch rain, our hope for the rye is to protect the strips. Our goal was never to increase yield or reduce chemicals.”

“After planting, my dad is right behind me spraying,” he said. “We’re putting down 35 units of nitrogen with the sprayer, hopefully before the corn emerges. That didn’t happen last year because the ground was pretty cold when we were planting corn so we ended up side-dressing the nitrogen.”

Riddell side-dresses the cornfields with anhydrous.

“I like the availability of nitrogen later in the season,” he said. “It also gives us a chance to see what the growing year is, what the stand is and then Progressive Ag will make the prescription about 48 hours before we sidedress.”

Soil testing can be difficult when fertilizer is applied in bands, Riddell said.

“We run the strip-till bar nine inches deep, so we’re dropping all our dry fertilizer seven inches down,” he said.

“Our soil tests are getting ugly, so we are doing a lot more tissue testing and letting the plant tell us what it needs.”

The tissue tests guide Riddell for fertilizer application for the following year.

“We are trying to feed next year’s crop,” he said.

Tissue tests are pulled from the same spot in the field three times per year for corn and once each year for soybeans.

“We think it is the best indicator for the fertility we’re putting out in the fields,” Riddell said.

Jay Riddell (shown above) uses management zones to keep the cost per bushel the same throughout his fields.

“Our goal is not to maximize yield or reduce inputs because in areas that we know we can raise 300-bushel corn, I expect to spend more per acre on that area of the field.”

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-410-2254, or mblum@ shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

Spring 2022 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 15

A STORY GENERATIONS IN THE MAKING. DEKALB.COM

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW GRAIN MARKETING AND ALL OTHER STEWARDSHIP PRACTICES AND PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Bayer, Bayer Cross, and DEKALB and Design® are registered trademarks of Bayer Group. ©2021 Bayer Group. All Rights Reserved.