Corn Stand Counts: What They Mean and What They Tell You

We might have a problem on our hands. This is a new field, the corn is emerging, and if the stand isn't good enough, we're going to have to rip it up. So, we're going to go check out stand counts in this field and see what we find. So, what is a stand count? Let me explain. So, this is stand counts explained. You only really need two tools, a shovel and a tape measure. So, some information, our field is planted in 30-in grids. So, based on that, we will measure out 17 ft 5 in. So, you'll take the tape measure out in the field in the random spots and measure out 17 ft 5 in and count the plants in between. Actually, let me just show you. Okay, so here's my tape measure. I'm going to pull it out 17 ft 5 in. This is where the first spot I'm going to check. But, as you're doing stand counts, you should be checking all throughout the field, not just in one area. There's different conditions throughout the field, lower areas, higher areas. There could be a planter issue in just a part of the field. So, you want to check throughout the entire acreage, whatever it is, not just in one area because you never know, there's a lot of variability throughout the field. It's not the same everywhere. Okay, so we got 17 ft 5 in laid out with the tape measure. Okay, so we found 30 plants there and I think we planted 31,000 but there was a little gap. So, I'm going to grab the shovel and see if that was a skip or if the plant didn't germinate. Here's where the missing plant was and here's one of the fun parts about being in the ground mess. Now it's time to figure out what happened. All right, so the plant did germinate. It's It was right at the soil surface about to emerge. One of the things that we're looking for is making sure that the plants aren't two leaf stages behind its neighbors. So, its neighbors right here look like they're V1, which means that they'd only be one leaf stage behind. So, right now this plant isn't a weed. If these plants around it were two or three leaf stages ahead of it, then this would probably be considered a weed and it probably wouldn't amount to much out in the field. So, I think that it's going to be okay, but we already have 30 plants here, so that would be potential up to 300 bushels and my dad's yield goal for this field is probably 250 bushels. So, even if this one plant turns into a weed and doesn't make it, it's going to be okay. We should still have enough plants for that yield goal. — Oh boy, as we're scouting here and doing stand counts, found some weeds. We got it looks like to me not a weed expert, looks like velvetleaf to me because one of the things I was talking to Darren about my uncle is there's two different leaves that are on velvetleaf and that's how you can kind of tell it's that versus another weed. One that's more rounded and one that's more heart-shaped. So we have some velvetleaf plants here, which is not good, but they're very small right now. Almost too small to kill. So there's kind of a fine line between weeds getting too big and weeds being really small and difficult to control. The better way to control this is our pre-emerge actually getting started, but we haven't had too much rain, so that could be part of the reason why we're seeing some velvetleaf here.

So as we're going around doing stand counts throughout the field, this is why it's good to actually do this not just in one spot because you get to walk around and find different things. This has been a common theme. We've been seeing pretty good stands about 30,000 everywhere we've gone, but there's been spots where there's one plant that's kind of behind in the stand count. Just like in the very first one we did, there's one here, too. So I'm going to figure out what's going on and it's probably just below the soil surface just like how it's been throughout the field. It's just interesting how common it is just to have one plant, which is fine cuz we planted this on April 11th, I think. So it was very cold. It's now a month later and plants are very small still. It has been cold in our area, so it it's not crazy to see plants that are a little bit behind and a little bit smaller right now because of how many GDUs we've actually had, which not is not many. Okay, one thing I didn't really want to talk about, but it needs to happen. What would you do if the stand was poor enough where you wanted to rip it up? For us, it probably would be around 20,000 stand less than that where we would consider even doing this. I hope that it doesn't have to happen to you, and I hope it doesn't happen to us either. It's not a good day, but there's a lot of different factors that could go into that, whether it be planter issues, what's going on in the field, maybe compaction, sidewall compaction, or even just the seed. But, the key difference between soybeans and corn is soybeans you could just come out here and plant some more, interseed it. But, with corn it doesn't work that way. Like I had mentioned, corn will become a weed when it's a few leaf stages behind, which if you planted more corn right now, it would be a weed. So, it wouldn't turn out very well. But, if you're going to kill it with a herbicide, you have to be careful which ones you're using because if you're going to plant corn right after, it might have some residual and hurt that next stand of corn that you're going to replant into here. So, there are a few different scenarios there. A lot to go through. Talk to your agronomist about that, and hopefully that doesn't have to happen and you have great perfect stands. So, to report back, we didn't find anything too alarming. Saw pretty good stands. That's how corn stand counts looks like. Need to do it in soybeans as well. But, thanks for watching this video. Leave a like, comment, subscribe, and we'll see you next time.