By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

GREENVILLE, Ill. — Early- and full-season corn hybrid trials netted outstanding yields at the Shad Kleiner farm in Bond County during the 2014 growing season. The tests were conducted by 3rd Party Comparisons of Owaneco, Ill., for Farmers’ Independent Research of Seed Technologies (FIRST).

The early-season test netted an average of 219.5 bushels per acre for the 54 planted varieties, led by Dyna-Gro D52VC91 with a yield of 247.2 bushels per acre and a gross income of $922 per acre.

Along with Genuity VT Double Pro technology, Dyna-Gro’s seed treatment included Acceleron fungicide products, Poncho at 0.5 mg. ai/seed and Votivo. The yield held 15 percent moisture content.

Finishing second in the FIRST early-season test on the Kleiner farm was LG Seeds’ LG5618STXRIB variety, with a yield of 242.2 bushels and gross income of $902 an acre. LG Seeds’ contained the same seed technology and treatment as Dyna-Gro’s first-place yielder.

Rounding out the top three was Steyer 11208VT3PRO RIB, producing a yield of 234.2 bushels per acre and gross income of $874.

An anomaly in the early-season test was Spectrum’s 5967 brand, which yielded 220.4 bushels – good for just 21st overall – but netted the second-highest gross income with $904 per acre.

FIRST’s full-season test of corn hybrids on the Kleiner farm was also paced by a Dyna-Gro brand, this time the D56VC46 variety. It finished first among the 48 varieties tested, with a yield of 232.7 bushels, and came in second in gross income of $862 an acre, to Steyer variety 11504VT2PRO RIB, which yielded 232.4 bushels per acre with a gross income of $867.

Placing third in Kleiner’s full-season test was Channel’s 217-41DGVT2PRIB variety, with yield of 231.6 bushels and gross income of $862.

Dyna-Gro’s winning entry in the full-season trial featured Genuity CT Double PRO technology and Acceleron fungicide products, Poncho and Votivo.

“Shad’s field planted perfectly – great seedbed,” noted FIRST Site Manager Eric Beyers.

“It also had a gentle slope, which allowed the abundant rains to surface drain well. The tests had uniform emergence and stands.”

However, disease pressure, in the form of gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight, was moderately high, Beyers reported. Still, “plant heights were average at eight to 10 feet, and ear development was great with excellent tip fill and half-inch kernel depths.”