Todd Kimbrell wrapped up his corn planting last week
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
It may only be the middle of April, but some U.S. farmers have finished planting their 2021 crops.
Todd Kimbrell, a grower from Itasca, Texas, wrapped up corn planting last week on his 5,500-acre farm.
“Planting went really well,” he told Farms.com. “We had mostly good conditions. Our biggest issue so far is feral hog damage.”
He would’ve been done even earlier but he made a decision that required more corn seed in the ground.
“We thought we were going to be done about two weeks ago,” he said. “Then we got a rain and decided to switch some cotton acres to corn.”
In total, Kimbrell reduced his cotton acres by about 1,500 to make room for more corn.
Market prices dictated the decision, he said.
“With the futures price inversion, we’ll be harvesting before September and I won’t have to store that grain like I normally would,” he said. “We’ll end up selling more corn at harvest than we normally do.”
Kimbrell, a two-time winner (2016 and 2017) of the National Corn Yield Contest for non-irrigated corn, uses Dekalb hybrids on his farm.
In 2017 he used DKC64-34 to achieve a yield of 217.5012 bushels per acre.
He invests in multiple seed treatments to ensure his crop has the best chance of performing well.
“We’ve got pretty much every trait you can get we planted this year,” he said. “We’ve got Trecepta, double PRO, SmartStax and others. It’s all about protecting that seed and giving the plant the best chance to succeed.”
In addition to finishing planting, some of Kimbrell’s crop has emerged.
About 80 percent of his crop is up and he likes what he sees.
“We’re very pleased with our stands so far,” he said.
Nationally, the 2021 planting season is just getting started.
About 2 percent of the national corn crop is planted, the USDA said in last week’s Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin.
Farmers intend to plant 91.1 million acres of corn in 2021, the USDA says.