Hybrids

Choosing the right corn hybrid for your farm is very important. Using a nonbiased information source such as a University sponsored yield trial, select the top 20 or so yielding hybrids with a maturity rating commensurate with your farm. Then, identify other performance characteristics and/or traits important for your farm and evaluate the 20 hybrids accordingly by eliminating those that do not comply with your chosen traits. Then look for other sources of data/information on these remaining hybrids to further refine your list. Finally, evaluate the several remaining hybrids on test strips on your farm and then incorporate the top performing hybrids into your rotation. This process should be conducted every year since the average life-span of a hybrid is on the order of 3 to 4 years.

The plot size in the hybrid trial research is not essential to the trial. Of more importance is the consistency of soil and environmental conditions within each replication. The problem with very large plots is the inability to control soil and environment so they are identical between plots.

Because University sponsored hybrid trials are nonbiased, experimentally controlled, and replicated, they will generally provide the most useful information. However, hybrid performance on a neighbor’s field can be used to augment University data in a manner that will help your decision process

GMO Corn

GMO stands for “genetically modified organism.” Transgenic is a more widely accepted terminology. Both terms refer to the discipline of Biotechnology. Biotechnology is the application of a wide range of scientific techniques to the modification and improvement of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are of economic importance. The practical application of transgenics in corn production involves the insertion of DNA into corn from more distantly related organisms to express a particular “trait” in the corn. A transgenic is the resultant offspring from such a recombinant DNA transfer. Bt or “Bacillus thurengensis” refers to a gene from a bacterium that codes for a protein that disrupts the gut function of “Lepidoptera” species of insect such as European corn borer. Bt is the primary transgenic corn event. Other transgenic corn includes the transfer of a gene that confers herbicide tolerance.

For more information on this or other topics related to corn production, contact your state extension corn specialist or your local extension educator/agent.

The following is the link to the corn extension specialists: state extension corn specialist