HOW subsurface drip irrigation fuels high corn yields.

Corn, USA, 2017

The shadow of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains is a tough area to grow corn. But Kenvin Matthes is successful at growing corn there, with high yield.

Ahead of the competition

In 2015, the fourth generation farmer outperformed all other North Carolina corn growers. Excellent dryland corn yields for the area average around 175 to 180 bushels per acre.

With 287.4419 and 217.1615 bushels per acre he won the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) National Corn Yield Contest and was the runner-up in the contest's no-till/striptill, irrigated division.

Boosting corn yields

Most of Matthew's dryland and irrigated are small and irregularly shaped. After using center pivots for a few years, he began experimenting with subsurface drip irrigation.

He purchased a subsurface drip system from Netafim USA, that delivers water and nutrients to his crops. The buried plastic tubes of 10,5 inches deep contain embedded emitters located with regular spacing.

He quickly boosted his corn yields while reducing water usage, compared to a pivot system. Now, he's making nearly 300-bushel corn with subsurface drip irrigation while using only 11 inches of irrigation water. Matthews aims to average 290 to 310 bushels across his irrigated acres.

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Boosting corn yields

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