“ We planted 26,500 seeds per acre, and it looks like we have a stand of about 26,000, which being irrigated land, that hits our target. We may lose some between now and the time when it puts on an ear.”

John Malazzo farms in the Brazos bottom we were surprised that he hopes for one ear of corn per stalk.

“If our plant population is lower than that, we tend to get some suckers that come up, or we will have stalks with double ears, which basically that second ear takes fertilizer and water away from the main ear which makes it weigh less and produce less.”

In the Brazos bottom corn has been used as a rotation crop with cotton for years, and with the high price corn is bringing, it’s tempting to change your planting program.

“To be honest with you, here in the Brazos bottom we don’t have the corn infrastructure that we need to plant a lot of corn. We have storage problems, we have truck problems, I guess cotton is king here in the bottom because we’re set up as far as the infrastructure it takes for cotton.”

Spring brings with it huge demands on farmers’ time.

“We’ve got our corn crop up, we need to spray it with the herbicides. We need to hurry up and get our side dressed fertilizer put out on it before it gets too tall. It’s also time to plant cotton, so we’re having to knock down beds, and plant cotton, and fertilize corn and run our sprayers.”