Is Corn Fodder Chopping Necessary?

Decades ago, nearly all farmers would run some sort of flail chopper or heavy spindle mower over their freshly combined corn fields.  Why? It made them look neat, and it reduced the length of some of the corn stalks so that when the plows hit the fields in the spring (and sometimes in the fall), the operation of chisel or moldboard plowing was more easily accomplished. Fields looked "clean"! Is it still necessary to mow or chop corn stalks?

A few facts about the costs of stalk chopping should be obvious. It takes a fair amount of labor to accomplish, it adds wear and tear to the tractor and the implement being used to chop stalks, and it burns diesel which is increasingly expensive. Further, field surfaces with chopped stalks are more prone to loss of some of that shredded fodder, along with topsoil and fertility nutrients, during heavy rainfall events, a more common occurrence than decades ago. 

One farmer commented recently that leaving corn stalks standing has numerous benefits for him. Non-chopped corn stalk fields often already have plenty of residue on the soil surface to protect it from winter water erosion, and the taller stalks can catch leaves and husks that might otherwise be blown off fields. With many of the tougher and thicker stalk bases remaining vertical until planting, there is less residue on the field surface for the drill or planter to have to plant through. Additionally, when the tractor drives down those stalks that are left standing, it is in the direction of the planting operation, the seed openers can often navigate through the stalks without having to slice through them. Having lots of crop residue on field surfaces during the warmer months of the growing season serves as a mulch that can slow evaporation of soil moisture. If some of this mulch is standing until planting, the mulching effect is lessened, and soil surfaces can dry a little quicker, possibly allowing planting to begin a little sooner.

On livestock and dairy farms, some of that fodder is needed back at the barn for bedding, but is all of it needed? Several farmers have shared that when fodder is heavy, and when they won’t need all the fodder from all their shelled corn acres, they will set the stalk chopper higher to leave a taller stubble and run the rake higher or at a faster ground speed to do a "sloppy" job of raking. This leaves some protection for the soil surface and for soil quality improvement. In the end, much of the fodder that was used for bedding returns to one or another of the farm’s fields, along with the manure from the bedded animals.

Hopefully, the ideas shared here will cause some to rethink the need to aggressively chop all those acres of corn stalks.