What is NEPS and how do you calculate it?
Net Effective Plant Stand (NEPS) is the total plant population minus late emerging plants and poorly spaced plants. The percentage is NEPS divided by total plant population. Typically this measurement is collected when plants are at the 4-8 leaf stage.
Most people look at a plant population once the field is planted; however, we analyze how many of those plants are actually full producing plants. Raising corn is no different than raising hogs. If you have a runt pig, it will always be a runt pig that doesn’t produce to the fullest potential while still using the same amount of resources to do so. Much like runt pigs, delayed emerging corn plants are stealing your profits.
Why is it important for our customers to look at NEPS each year?
Each year at CCI we look at NEPS for every field that a grower plants of our product. This is important for a grower to see and understand how tillage, seed quality, soil conditions, and residue management affect their plant stand of corn. We then use all of this information that has been collected to help growers make changes to their operation and their farming methods to ensure that they are making progress on improving their profitability while improving their skills in the field.
Why are NEPS important for us at CCI to look at?
We use NEPS as a catalyst for change. There are over a 1,000 variables that go into raising a great crop. Most variables are out of our control, but as we often say, the person who controls the most variables that they actually have control over will always out produce their competition. As a company, we can control seed quality, and we do so with very stringent testing of our seed not only at our conditioners, but also once it enters our warehouse. Before a bag of our seed is delivered to a farmer, it has been tested a minimum of 3 times at 3 different labs to ensure that it is the highest quality seed.
Understanding the genetic makeup of the hybrid is key to placing it on the right piece of ground. The right hybrids on the right piece of ground are two factors that can help you take your yield to the next level. Here at Corn Capital Innovations, we pride ourselves in helping production experts as yourself take high quality seed and place it on the right acre in your field.
Remember, everything that happens above ground starts below ground!
What did we see this year in the fields?
The 2014 growing season will be remembered in large part for the challenges that occurred in getting the crop planted in a challenging spring, as well as, the deluge of water that occurred in June. When we conducted our NEPS evaluations this year, here is what we saw:
- Soil Conditions at planting time are the #1 dictator of yield
- High full producing ear counts (best stands we have seen in the last 3 years)
- Significant differences on vertical tillage versus field cultivators
- Vertical tillage had a 2-3,000 full producing plants per acre advantage
- The field cultivator smear layer kept the soil anaerobic longer than vertical tillage tools thus the plants suffered more seedling diseases as well as prohibited root development
Check out these pictures of what we were seeing in the field!
In agriculture, growing smarter begins with collecting knowledge from hands on experience and our agronomists can work with you to get the latest technology that’s right for your unique growing challenges.
So now is the time to start planning for 2015, contact Corn Capital Innovations today to get a crop plan in place or update your current plan for the coming year!
It’s our pleasure to invite you, our patrons, to join us for a fun evening at Max’s Grill in Olivia on Tuesday, December 2nd at 6pm to show our appreciation. 
Production
I have heard that farming is a lot like playing cards. There is always a certain amount of risk involved and there is often a lot of money at stake. The only difference between playing cards and farming is that you cannot fold your hand when farming…..you have to work with the hand that mother nature has dealt you.