00:00 Hey there, we're in a field now. Here's some Farms talking about sugar. You know, we're in front of that skid of 50 pound 00:06 bags of sugar. We talked to Chad about why he puts it on and how all the great things that sugar does. You said it's a complement to 00:12 the chemistry and the other stuff you already put on the nutrients putting out there. But how do you know if it's working and that's what we want to demonstrate now, Mark 00:18 and Caleb from tiva Corporation. We're holding this corn plant that you just went out and dug out of the field. It's a beautiful looking corn plant the ears 00:27 about you know, about head high. What do we need to see here to know whether that sugar does any good? So right right now, I just went out in the field and picked one. Where is a good 00:36 stand around it? What we're gonna do is actually take the the bricks level and using a refractometer and it'll actually tell you the sugar 00:42 level of the plant brick level means Caleb it's concentration of sugar. Okay, and you can get these back in 00:48 the day. They were about 150 bucks. Now you can get them for about 19 dollars. There's no batteries too. They never go bad mine. 00:54 I've had mine for 32 years you use the term that I think a lot of our listeners including me or probably wondering bricks level. 01:00 Are yeah, Brix? Okay, it means it's a concentration of sugar in your plant. Okay, and that matters of course because the more sugar in the plant the more healthy it is the more thrives the more it takes up nutrients Etc 01:09 higher the protein the higher the test weight all that correlates to sugar. Okay. So you just sold me on the idea that I need to use sugar Chad gave me all the reasons. It makes me 01:18 really nervous because we just pulled this plant. I'm like what if you don't have any oh and I will tell you a little bit about this sugar. 01:24 So when you want to take sugar you really want to do it about one two o'clock in the afternoon. We're in here. It's about 9:30 or 01:30 10:00 in the morning. So I was expect our sugar levels will be lower than they will be at to this afternoon because of photosynthes. Okay, so photo sentences the more the day goes on the 01:39 more Daylight is being utilized by the plant through photosynthesis, the more we're grabbing sugars and put them up in there. That's grow Peak 01:45 peek. Sugar levels will be about early to mid-afternoon. That's correct. Yes just about the time. It's had enough time in the day to make sure but 01:51 it's not gotten overheated and starting stress levels. I understand. Okay. So yeah, we're gonna be a little lower than you would anticipate if we did it for hours from now, right? So 02:00 Show us what we're going to do is we're going to take the node below the ear. So I always just strip the stock, you 02:06 know that away for us. But then we're gonna take you know, we're gonna take it the node below the ear. Just cut your stalk right below 02:12 that node. And I got a really sharp knife here, right? Yeah. All right. So then you just take that you take 02:20 the inner pith out. So you got to cut all the green away. All right, just take that inner pith. Okay. 02:26 And then you're going to take that take the end of it and you're just going to put pieces that so here's my assistant. Okay, I'm your 02:32 assistant. Well, we have the refractometer back to Caleb. Alright, Mr. Coots you gave me something and I want to make sure that if you're listening, I'm 02:38 holding a garlic press like you would have in your kitchen. If you were a chef if you're if you're watching you can see it. It's just a garlic press just like using the kitchen. All right, we're gonna put that piece. 02:47 Okay. Well, we're gonna put several pieces in there because we want to get plenty of juice out of there that might get some sugar and then you're gonna take one piece and 02:53 you're gonna put it in your mouth and cheetah. Okay, perfect. And then we start smashing that then we're gonna squeeze that and then 02:59 we put it on top of the refractometer the juices that are coming out of the pith. 03:04 And we don't need a lot. It's gonna spit it's alive a test almost, isn't it? Yep, okay. 03:09 All right. We got a little bit on your refractometer you flip the lid back on it and then you hold it up. It's like a scope if you're listening but not watching. 03:15 It's it's like a kaleidoscope like he's looking up there and seeing pretty my guess is going to be a sugar level around a seven or 03:21 eight right now, okay. and and it is a Six and a half or seven so it's what I'm saying. I got dial it in here because we had somebody glasses. Oh, no, I 03:33 was bad wrong. This is a 12 12. Okay. This is a 12 you want to look through that? So that's good. If you get if you get above 10 03:42 on your bricks level this time of year, then that means you're gonna have good heavy corn. So being up at 12 at 10 o'clock in the morning. I guarantee you that's gonna be a 14 03:51 or 15 at 2 when you're at 14 or 15. You're at numbers that you'd normally don't see in corn. I guarantee you the average guy. If you went out there, you're gonna see 04:00 five sixes and sevens. We're getting way too much information right here now, go ahead. I'm just messing with you will all right. We know we're not talking about the average guy. We're talking 04:09 about the people that Listen to extreme Ag and we're trying to achieve above average status. So 12 is a good number. What's the highest 04:15 you've ever seen 16 open, Iowa into some really black dirt 16 highest I've ever since the peak afternoon and you talked about once you start getting above that 10 04:24 sugar is the first thing the plant has to make every day. And so when you're above 10, it's got room to start making more stuff so 04:30 we can you're gonna see increased test weight because it's got the energy to be able to move stuff in that kernel you're gonna see increased hormone levels 04:36 because it has time to make hormones instead of Making sugar and that includes things like corn actually has a hormone they use as an insecticide 04:44 called them boa and those levels are directly correlated to Sugar. So you get more sugar you get more natural insecticide in your plant. 04:50 All right, Chad you are introduced to this sugar testing by the guys here ativa, or were you introduced to this previous? Oh, 04:56 no, they introduced me to it. I've just never done it. Okay, Mark. Give me give me a thing. You know, we've had it we've run it. 05:02 I mean we have doing it, you know through the years we've done it, but we haven't done it any this year. Okay. What do you think? 05:08 Well, I mean are you know Mark saying our stuff, you know and through the years we've always had real good test weight. You know, what we 05:14 consider good is, you know, everybody says, you know what we won't be 60 pounds, you know, or whatever 56 59. Well we 05:20 You know up we're just always gonna be anywhere from 59 to 61 or two. You know, we're just wear corn runs the highest I've ever seen a 64. 05:29 Oh my you know, so I mean, but but that's just kind of where we are and it's the again it's the program and the system that we've come about and it's the you know, 05:38 but it's just what we do the sugar that we're talking about here and analyzing it and a person that follows your advice. I buy one of these refractometers which you 05:47 said is let's let's cut a calculator it's cheaper now than it was 30 years ago. Yeah 20 bucks. All right by refractometer you get your garlic, press at the at the kitchen store 05:56 and then you gotten you start doing this how often should a person do this? Because I like tissue sampling. Are we going to do this to where we like driver ourselves 06:02 now, I do it this time of year right after tassel right before tassel. I just checking to see where we're at. And then I go from there that way if 06:08 I'm going to do a fungicide spray and it's low if I need to beef up the sugar I can and if it's not then I do go with the 06:14 normal rate and then I'm good Mark. I want to go ahead and say you said this time of year. So that's going to depend on where you are. We're shooting this June 30th 06:20 in Southern Alabama, but you said from the plants Brown silk, you know right at Brown silk are after Brown silk. So right when it's starting to tassel good I 06:29 start doing sugars then I don't do it real early. I don't do it really late. Just around Brown Sex. The only time I check when should 06:35 I be alarmed? When should I be alarmed what level is too low and I need to get out the sugar. Well, if you're under 10, you're hurt. Yeah, so okay under 06:41 10 under 10 over 10's good and then we know how to treat it just like though by using the sugar products right again. Here we go. Here we go. Again, if you're under 10 now, yeah, you can put 06:50 some sugar out there. But really you need to move your program around the next season to up that Sugar you don't probably 06:57 rectify the problem this late you're gonna help it but and then maintenance on those things. 07:02 Just wipe it on your jeans and that's all and you're done. All right, he's Mark Coots. This is Caleb Coots. They're a tiva Corporation. You just learned about 07:08 sugar the important sugar in your corn crop and also how to test for sugar with real simple refractometer. You can buy online and then 07:14 garlic press That's a kitchen store. I'm Damian Mason coming at you from Chad Henderson's Farm in Madison, Alabama talking all about sugar 07:20 here at extreme egg. Thanks for joining us.