Advantages to Corn in Your Food Plot

by Jim Wessel

Those who know me know that my favorite food plot is soybeans.   However, in 2016 I had a terrible problem with Burdock in about half of my soybean food plot – it was out of control. Because of the sensitivity of soybeans to harsher chemicals for weed control, in 2017 I decided to plant 4 acres of corn. Fortunately, Real World Wildlife Products had been testing various blends of corn products that are used in top-of-the-line agriculture production, both conventional and Round Up Ready, for about 10 years at this point so I decided to plant their prototype in my food plot.

In early spring, around March, we broadcasted 250 lbs. of 0-0-60 per acre. We no-till planted the Round Up Ready prototype, which is a blend of three varieties with of a yield of 112 –118 days the third week of May. We planted 30” rows, approximately 1 seed every 6”. Immediately after planting, we sprayed 32% nitrogen along with chemicals to keep the weeds at bay and I saw the first signs of the corn coming up out of the ground 7 to 10 days later. Once the corn was 12” – 16” high, we knifed in 140 lbs. of nitrogen with anhydrous per acre. Corn likes nitrogen, the more you give it, the bigger the ear will be, the more kernels per ear, and therefore more yield per acre. Nitrogen is not cheap but if you plant corn, it only makes sense to do it right. The third week of June we checked the germination rate and found it to be approximately 92%.

The yield results were great. We didn’t combine the corn to get the exact yield but calculated it by using the Yield Component Method developed by the University of Illinois Agricultural Engineering Department. While this is not the most precise method, it is simple and accurate enough for what we wanted to know. We did four separate calculations, one in each acre of the plot, resulting in an average of 223 bushels per acre.

Planting the corn definitely helped my weed problem. I know the rows were clean because at the end of August, I broadcasted RWWP Harvest Salad and RWWP Plot Topper (aka the “Deadly Dozen”) every third row throughout all four acres of the corn for a bigger variety in my food plot. And I still had my favorite food plot, RWWP Gen 2 soybeans, butting up to the corn!

I was very impressed with the yield from the RWWP corn. After seeing the results of including corn in my plot this past year, I know there are huge advantages to planting it and I can see even more now it is a good idea to have a little bit of everything in your food plot. We saw a lot of deer going to the big plot this fall. I had a lot of fun spending time hunting with my kids. My daughter, JoJo, harvested her very first deer and my son, Bob, harvested his best buck to date!