August 2010 Issue newsletter www.beckshybrids.com 1-800-937-2325 In This Issue: Staff Columns Community Talk .....Page #4 Sales Talk ...............Page #5 The Sower ..............Page #6 Feature Articles Calibrating Your Yield Monitor .............................Page #1 Minimizing Harvest Loss .............................Page #2 Fall Seeding Alfalfa .............................Page #3 reetings! This season’s weather events have certainly provided an assortment of extremes! In particular, the past thirty days has been nothing short of hot and humid! It has perhaps made us somewhat uncomfortable at times, but the crops have responded in fine fashion. Now if we can get another month of conducive weather for grain fill we’ll be looking at a good year for both corn and soybeans. Now is a great time to evaluate your crops for yield potential and other agronomic factors. Eighty-five (85) percent of corn yield is by kernel count. The other fifteen percent (15) of yield is from the kernel weight. Therefore your accuracy in assessing viable kernels and ultimately yield per acre can be done with 85% confidence. Estimating soybean yield on the other hand needs to be done later in the season when we know pod count per plant, beans per pod, and bean weight. August is filled with many Beck Field Day activities. Make sure to at least take in one of these special events to find out about the newest Beck seed introductions and research projects that will make your 2011 plantings even more profitable! We have field day events planned at each of our four Practical Farm Research locations scattered around our market area. These localized events offer educational opportunities as well as family fun activities. I look forward to seeing you soon. G CALIBRATING YOUR YIELD MONITOR The term “yield monitor” is familiar to most in agriculture today. However, a lot has changed since the introduction of the yield monitor in the early 90’s. First of all, a yield monitor is a very generic term in relation to the actual capabilities of these precision pieces of equipment. Today’s yield monitors can control your sprayer, control and vary the rate of Beck’s seed in your fields, control your nitrogen applicator, control your fertilizer spreader, and map any and all operations that you desire to record. Today’s yield monitor is more like the ultimate controller and a personal secretary rolled into one. Oh yeah… it can also map yield from your combine. Harvest is soon approaching and let’s assume we have used our monitors to do a lot of these operations. However, it is tough to find the time to properly calibrate the monitor. What were conditions like last year? Was most of the corn dry? Did it have exceptionally high test weight? Conditions last year were different than this year. Therefore your yield monitor must be re-trained to this year’s grain conditions and flow rates in order for your data to mean much. Accurate data begins with accurate calibration. Before beginning any calibration procedures there are a few maintenance items to perform that will save you a lot of headaches later on. First, remove the flow sensor from the top of the clean grain elevator and inspect the impact plate for buildup. Last year’s wet corn conditions very likely have left a buildup on the deflector plate or flow sensor itself. Remove this buildup for a more accurate calibration. Secondly, Beck’s, the “B” design, Discover The Power, Escalate and Practical Farm Research (PFR)® are trademarks of Beck’s Superior Hybrids Inc. | *XL is distributed by Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc. www.beckshybrids.com ...continued on page 2