Herman Warsaw hosted a meeting of top corn growers to discuss corn yields and the future. Warsaw has achieved over 300 bushels per acre of corn through his method of deep chisel plowing to incorporate crop residue and increase soil organic matter. He argues the key to further yield increases is managing residue to reduce disease and maximize water retention. The group discussed their different challenges, but saw promise in Warsaw's system of prioritizing residue management to improve soils and sustainability.

1. FARM JOURNAL/MARCH 1983
Editor's Note: With corn already in such surplus,
S u r p l u s e s o r n o . . . you may ask why FARM JOURNAL continues to focus
on higher yields. Our answer is that food produc-
tion is the farmer's purpose in life; that no matter
how many nor how few acres you decide to grow
this year, your goal will still be to produce the high-
N e w est yield that gives you the lowest cost per bushel.
• When a third, successive record corn crop began
taking shape last summer, FARM JOURNAL editors de-
c o r n y i e l d cided it was time to reappraise production trends
with this amazing crop. We invited four outstanding
growers to Illinois, there to visit some top farms and
then talk about corn's future.
The new record national average of 114.8 bu. per
i n c r e a s e s acre announced by USDA last month confirms both
the timeliness of, and conclusions from, our meet-
ing. Surpluses or no, we have more corn yield in-
creases coming. And the key to future increases is
a h e a d the same as that to last year's big crop: Water!
Though all four farmers (photo) were chosen for
Farm Journal recently all-around corn-growing ability, two of the four are
already irrigating: Ike Newberry of Early County,
brought these four top corn Ga., and Richard Uhrenholdt of Antelope County,
Neb. And a third, Louis Shininger of Defiance
g r o w e r s t o g e t h e r to look County, Ohio, is using it for backup in dry years.
But clearly the one who has been most innovative
at t h e i r — a n d your—future. in bringing extra water to his crop was our host,
Herman Warsaw of McLean County, 111. Yet War-
Here's what they see saw gives no thought to irrigation in his future, andl>
By LANE PALMER, Edit
P oo Fe Leavitt
ht rd
EXPERIMENT WITH EXTRA LIGHT by Fred Welch, University of Illinois, interested our panelists (from left):
Ike Newberry, Georgia; Louis Shininger, Ohio; Herman Warsaw, Illinois; Richard Uhrenholdt, Nebraska.
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2. that's going on all over the country this winter. Louis
Shininger agrees with Warsaw on fall chiseling. "Our
chiseled ground dries out quicker so we can get on it
T h e h a r d e r y o u p u s h earlier in the spring," he said. "But usually the land
that we moldboard stays wet."
Warsaw smiled and added: "And a lot more of your
for yields, t h e b e t t e r spring rains will run off your moldboarded land; it will
erode more; and then it will be the first to dry out."
it is for t h e s o i l . " Warsaw's deep root zone impressed all of us, espe-
cially Ike Newberry, who has to contend with severe
compaction in his area. "I don't see how you can pull
— H e r m a n Warsaw chisels 15" deep," he said.
"You don't do it all at o n c e , " Warsaw assured
him. "It takes several years to loosen up the soil. We
started chiseling at 8" to 10"—about the same depth
we had been plowing. We got our yields up to 180 to
for good reason: Last year, for the fourth time on the 190 bu. and decided we had to get the water down
same field, he topped 300 bu. per acre! And he had a deeper. It took us about three years to work the chisels
second field go over that mark last year. down to 15". Maybe that's why I've never seen a field
"Residue management is the key, " Warsaw told us respond to deep chiseling in less than four years."
time and again during our two-day visit. "These prair- Here's how Warsaw's 1978 results from profile
ie soils were not built with a plow. They were built by samples reflect benefits of deep chiseling:
decay of residue—from the top down. That's how Na-
ture did it—and the way we must do it." Depths at which sampl es were taken in the field
Warsaw's system of "conservation tillage," arrived
at by trial and error over the last 25 years, is to chop 0-3" 3"-6" 6"-9" 12"-18" 18"-24' 30"-36"
the stalks and chisel to a depth of 15" in the fall. % org. mat. 6.6 5.4 5.5 4.1 3.6 2.7
"Then I go over it with a field cultivator in the spring. P2 Ib./A 264 166 114 44 60 14
"Shallowly," he adds. "You should try not to turn up Klb./A 914 470 346 366 400 392
cold soil." Now here are parallel resultsfrom a nearby
Warsaw would be the first to warn that his system undisturbed fencerow.
might not work on your soil—that everyone needs to % org. mat. 5.8 4.5 4.0 2.7 2.3 0.9
experiment, just as he has. But he's convinced that P2 Ib./A 50 26 12 14 20 10
farmers everywhere should till their fields less and do it K Ib./A 652 452 320 284 262 200
so they incorporate residue in only the top 4" of soil.
"If you plow residue under, you
lose organic matter—it 'burns up.'
Organic matter is important be-
cause that's where your soil gets
texture and water-holding capaci-
ty," Warsaw insists. "If you mix it H e r m a n W a r s a w -
into the top portion of the soil, the
residue feeds the organisms and A p o s t l e o f C o n s e r v a t i o n
creates organic matter."
Warsaw probably has done
more soil testing than any farmer • Like Ike Newberry (see above), "One spring, it was too wet to
we know. One page of results he most farmers who have heard of Her- moldboard plow some of my bottom
gave us showed readings from five man Warsaw probably think his pri- land. We'd been using a chisel on our
different fields, each sampled at mary goal always has been to grow soybean ground, so I decided to chisel
eight different levels of the soil 300-bu. corn. Not so. But let him tell that cornfield 4" deep in two direc-
profile, and each sample analyzed it just the way he has told it to small tions. We followed the chisel with a
for six different nutrients. farm audiences across the Midwest: disk-harrow and ended up with a per-
That's why you're not inclined "In the 1950s, after seven years on fect seedbed and a good stand.
to argue when Warsaw says mat- the district conservation board, I be- "The next year, we split an 80-acre
ter-of-factly: "We increased our gan to question the ways we were try- field into 10-acre strips, which we al-
organic content from 3.3% in 1964 ing to control erosion. We were ternately plowed and chiseled. That
ll to 6.6% in 1978. In one test the spending a lot of money on terraces August we could see the differences
University ran, a core sample from and other structures, yet we still had a right to the row. The moldboarded
one of these fields absorbed 8" of lot of erosion. land was cracked, and the corn was
water, whereas a sample from a "I tried no-till for a while, but too firing. The chiseled land had no
moldboarded field would only take much of the water ran off under the cracks, and the corn was lush.
in 4" of water." stalks. Besides, people believed that a "We harvested a couple of strips
Our panel debated the best tools conservation program just couldn't separately and had the corn weighed
build yields. in town; there was a 14-bu. differ-
for incorporating residue, a debate
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3. Richard Uhrenholdt questioned whether residue de- leaves from drying out, and you get less stalk rot.
serves that much credit: "You started with a very deep "The ears of FS854 are about an inch longer than
topsoil. You told us winds had deposited several inches the average, and the kernels are very deep. That's one
of loess over already-rich prairie soil.'' reason why it tends to dry down so slowly. This hybrid
"Yes," Herman nodded. "But this field had a defi- does its best when you crowd it."
nite plowsole when I started chiseling. A plowshare We were back to the subject of water again. Almost
smears the wet soil into a layer, right over last year's in unison, the other three growers asked why FS854
layer, making it tough for the roots to penetrate. seemed so resistant to stalk rot. Warsaw said he sus-
Chisel points shatter that layer." pected it was a result of the hybrid's deep root system
and his own deep soil. Photosynthesis continues be-
For 300-bu. corn, Warsaw fertilizes with 250 lb. cause there are both water and nutrients to support it. !'
of diammonium phosphate and 250 lb. of potash. "I think I have fewer problems with both insects
"Some fertilizer moves down into the V-shaped and diseases than do most farmers," Warsaw added.
grooves . . . you get more mixing than you think," he "I believe it's the natural resistance of a healthy plant."
says. "Also, the organic matter encourages earth-
worms, and the water with nutrients runs right down At the end of our two-day gathering, we asked
those holes. Then too, with yields like these, you get a our panelists what phase of corn production probably
lot of decaying roots down there. held the most potential for their own future increases
"But you have to have a hybrid that can take full in yield. Warsaw responded at once: "Other than resi-
advantage of the water and nutrients," he added. His due management, it's eliminating the disease factor. I
top performer has been FS854—a full-season, 118-to- can push almost any hybrid to a plateau. Then disease
120-day corn. This is the one that made 338 bu. for moves in, stalks start going down, and yields tail off."
Warsaw in 1975, 326 bu. in 1981 and 308 last year on Said Louis Shininger: "My biggest problem is that
only 11" of moisture from planting to harvest. when I concentrate on one thing, I neglect something
"Funny, but Growmark's FS Seed Division wants to else. Right now I need more soil and tissue testing."
drop it," he says. "It has a much more extensive root "We all have different problems," said Uhrenholdt.
system, but in compacted soil, stalk rot hits it hard. I "Leaching of herbicides and fertilizer are my biggest.
guess that's why so many farmers don't like it." On dryland, we don't dare seed for more than 14,000
Warsaw has plenty of reason for liking it. When we plants; that's not enough to keep the weeds down."
were there, in the middle of a wet summer, we saw Ike Newberry probably summed things up best when
stalk rot and other diseases all around him. But the he said: "Most of us don't apply ourselves profession-
stalks in his fields were still green and succulent. ally to the job the way Herman does. Of course, I had
"FS854 has a tendency to photosynthesize about 15 heard of him before, but I just figured he had a plot of
days longer in late summer than do most others," land that he poured the fertilizer on to get big yields.
Warsaw explained. "And the last 15 days of photosyn- But what he's doing is more practical than anything
thesis are more important than the first 15. Keep lower else I've seen or heard about growing corn." <
o Darrell Smith
ence. Now it's rare to get that much the amount—but gradually to keep
increase, but it had rained at the right from creating problems. Today the
time, and the chiseled ground held the University talks about these levels.
moisture. So it isn't how much rain "In the spring we apply 28% nitro-
you get but how much you keep. gen, or you can use anhydrous. Then
"I could see that the residue had we cultivate with 7" sweeps—just
done a much better job of holding the deep enough to reach the bottom of
soil. I now believe that good residue the ridges. Many farmers would be
management can give 100°/o control content with one pass, but I feel that
of wind erosion, and Illinois spends leaves too many clods for soil to ac-
$6'/2 million a year to grade out our cept the herbicides. So we disk-har-
roadside ditches. So really, I got into row, spraying herbicide [usually Las-
yield contests because I felt they were so] behind the disk but in front of the
the best way to promote conservation. harrow.
Residue protects the soil and keeps it "You'll need to work out a pro-
from both compacting and crusting. gram that fits your soil type. Whether
We've had few emergence problems. you use no-till, ridge tillage or some
"I've built up my fertility levels other type, the important thing is to
slowly. When I first talked about 400 use residue to tie soil particles togeth-
to 600 lb. of potash per acre, the Uni- er so they won't wash away.
versity thought I was out of my mind. "Some farmers still feel that trying
As yields increased, I kept increasing for highest yields somehow hurts the
soil. I believe just the opposite.
"The highest yields give you the
FARMER/SCIENTIST. Though he has most residue, and high residue is cru-
had little formal training in science, cial for making the highest yields. So
Herman Warsaw uses every scientific the harder you push corn for yield,
measure available to grow high yields. the better it is for the soil." <
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