Search Site   
News Stories at a Glance
Diverse Corn Belt Project looks at agricultural diversification
Deere settles right-to-repair lawsuit for $99 million; judge still has to approve the deal
YEDA: From a kitchen table to a national movement
Insurer: Illinois farm collision claims reached 180 last year
Indiana to invest $1 billion to add jobs in ag, life sciences
Illinois farmer turned flood prone fields to his advantage with rice
1,702 students participate in Wilmington College judging contest
Despite heavy rain and snow in April drought conditions expanding
Indiana company uses AI to supply farmers with their own corn genetics
Crash Course Village, Montgomery County FB offer ag rescue training
Panel examines effects of Iran war at the farm gate
   
Archive
Search Archive  
   

Fayette Co. plot proves healthy for corn tests

By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

VANDALIA, Ill. — Croplan’s 6463 SS-technology produced an outstanding 227.9 bushels per acre during an early-season corn yield test conducted at the farm of Ronnie Sloan in Fayette County.
This earned Croplan a first-place ranking in yield production among 54 seed varieties tested by Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies (F.I.R.S.T.) on-site.

The 2010 Better Hybrids harvest report for southern Illinois, issued Aug. 30, shows that Wyffels’ XW6927 variety finished a close second, with 226.5 bushels per acre, followed by Stone’s 681-76VT3 at 226. Sloan’s test plot did not go unchallenged, weather-wise, noted F.I.R.S.T. Manager Eric W. Beyers.

“Strong winds from thunderstorms in early July produced green snapping in some hybrids prior to flowering,” Beyers commented. “Hybrids affected by the green snapping experienced yield reductions” but root lodging was minimal. Gray leaf spot, common rust and Stewart’s wilt leaf diseases presented moderate challenges, he concluded.

Sloan’s Croplan harvest, which was seeded in moderately drained, Crowden silty clay loam, placed third in gross income with $907 per acre; the high honor was earned by the Wyffels’ entry, at $927.50. Stone finished second, at $907.40 per acre.

The plot was planted on ground seeded with soybeans the previous year and treated with the herbicide Roundup.

Late season test

LG Seeds’ LG2641VT3 brand earned top honors in the full-season corn yield test conducted by F.I.R.S.T, also at the Sloan farm.
An Aug. 28 harvest revealed that the LG variety produced a yield of 224.1 bushels per acre, besting Great Heart’s HT-212VT3 (220.8) and Dairyland’s ST9313 (218.7). The products also finished in that ranking order in gross income, with LG earning top at $899.20 per acre.

Moisture content was a concern, at 24.5 percent in the LG variety and 23.3 percent in the Great Heart and Dairyland strains.

Sixty brands were measured during the late season test, which began April 20 with a seed rate of 32,000 per acre, and ended with a stand of 29,300 per acre.

A complete list of brands tested at the Sloan farm and other test results are available online at www.firstseedtests.com

10/27/2010