DAY FIVE: On farm with Ron Heck in Perry, Iowa

Our final day in US was spent on Ron Heck’s farm in Perry, Iowa where he grows 4000 acres of corn and soybeans. Family members, including his son and daughter-in-law, run the farm with himwith two full-time and four at harvest.

Crop insurance program

The federal crop insurance program is only relevant to more marginal areas like Kansas, Texas and North Dakota, but it’s less relevant in Iowa. Income Tax is 50‎ per cent when you add all of it up, but averaging tax over three years can allow tax refunds after a bad year. Political interference and uncertainty damages biofuel investment, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) legislation provides security for the biofuel industry. Restrictions on percentage blend allowed in vehicles limit the market. Also the distribution infrastructure is owned by petroleum companies, not ethanol refiners. As Ron said, ‘jockeying’ with RFS base ethanol volumes has a knock-on effect in lowering confidence for advanced biofuel investment. 

Harvest

One combine is expected to harvest 100 ton/hr. Ron has worked out that tractor and trailer is more efficient than moving grain by truck, expecially when he stores grain on his own farm. For those using trucks, much time is wasted waiting at the elevator. Ron would need six articulated trucks to replace four farm trailers. ‎He uses only one combine for 4,000 acres and it has to work – he replaces it frequently. He can't afford to get snow inside the combine; it melts then freezes, and it is very unpleasant removing the ice.

Cultivation

With very high volumes of straw, there is a need for soil contact with the corn stover to help bacteria to work the residue over the winter and break it down. Light discing once each two years is the only tillage used. Extreme cold weather kills some insects, breaks soil clods into tilth and helps storage by cooling grain fast.  

Yield maps

Combine yield maps have been used for 20 years. They find bad spots in fields, drainage, plant population, nutrition. Over the years, the high and low yield spots move around, some still stay in the same place. Tracks on farm machinery are not necessary with no till. Ron is starting to use cover crops with 10 per cent of farm planted with rye and is practicing using cover crops in case of regulation imposing them. He uses turnip to capture nitrogen from soy crops to recover this nitrogen in the following corn crop. Farmers are likely to grow cover crop seed locally, unless it’s on very marginal sites. Applications of 138 kilos a hectare of nitrogen on corn after soybeans is typical but can go up to 225 kilos per hectare.

Contract or ‘custom’ farmers often do more tillage, harvest too early, make ruts, buy elaborate equipment ($125,000for combine tracks) but keep landlords feeling special.