Estimating Corn Yield Losses from Unevenly Spaced Planting

Summary:

• Agronomists and corn growers have long assumed that evenly spaced stands of corn have a greater yield potential than unevenly spaced stands.
• The uniformity of spacing between plants can easily be determined by using a commonly used statistic, standard deviation (SD). This statistic is available within most spreadsheets.
• By measuring the SD of plant uniformity, yield loss due to non-uniform plant spacing can be estimated using the following equation: Yield loss = (present plant spacing SD –2.0) X (4 bu/A/in. of SD improvement)
• This guide discusses how to measure stand variability and develops criteria for determining if recalibration of planter meters is needed.

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