By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

DIMONDALE, Mich. – The combination of Michigan’s wet spring and hot, dry summer challenged the corn hybrids used in independent seed testing in the southern part of the state.

Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies (F.I.R.S.T.) planted test plots on six sites – Adrian, Dimondale, Jackson, Marshall, Mason and Reading. However, of those six test sites, data from three locations was not included in the average. The Adrian site was lost to weed competition, Mason to severe herbicide injury and Dimondale to severe drought stress. The remaining three locations had an all-season average yield of 119.2 bushels per acre for the 63 hybrids that were planted.

F.I.R.S.T. regional manager Rich Schleuning said this year’s growing conditions were a challenge at all the Michigan sites. “We struggled with the wet spring,” he said.

The Jackson site was under water three times in the spring, according to Schleuning’s field notes, while the Reading site’s “extreme wet conditions to extreme dry conditions hurt this location.”

Schleuning explained that the Dimondale plot, which was not included in the average, did produce data that offers a look at how the hybrids react in extreme drought conditions, which can be beneficial for farmers.

“We struggled to get that in with the wet spring,” Schleuning said. “But when we tilled the alleyways and took stands, that plot was beautiful. It was one of the best looking plots we had.”

But, Schleuning said with the delay in planting – May 13 – followed by no rain in July and August, the plot, “went through nothing but extreme heat and drought conditions. We had some hybrids in there that were complete barren stalk. There was a cob in there, but that’s all there was.

“At pollination it was too hot and too dry,” Schleuning said.
However, the value in the yields, he said, is that “it was great to look at for data quality of what hybrids could withstand drought conditions at pollination. It’s good to see how these hybrids stand up to stress and drought.”

In Marshall, Schleuning’s field notes indicate that the “crop got off to a good start with excellent emergence for conditions after planting” with “better than expected yield for the dry July and August.”

At this site, the hybrids outperformed the other locations for yields, with G2 Genetics hybrid 1H-005 taking the top yield of all locations with 190.1 bushels per acre.

Top performing hybrids in this region came from G2 Genetics, Midwest Seed, Great Lakes, AgriGold and Brownseed.

G2 Genetics hybrid 1H-005 finished first with an average of 140.2 bushels per acre across the three testing locations included in the average and outproduced all the other hybrids at the Marshall location with 190.1 bushels per acre.

Midwest Seed hybrid 76126VT3 came in a close overall second with an average of 138.1 bushels per acre and it topped the results in the Jackson location, yielding 124.3 bushels per acre there.
Great Lakes hybrid 5306G3VT3 had an all-season yield average of 135.2 bushels per acre while AgriGold hybrid A6323CL yielded 133.3 bushels per acre, followed closely by Brownseed hybrid 3A-804GT at 133.1 bushels per acre.

F.I.R.S.T. provides a third-party unbiased testing service, conducting plots at six locations per region, Schleuning said.
“We’re trying to get the best results we can of products for the farming industry to help them make the best growing decision for hybrids going into it the next year,” Schleuning said. “It compares the best hybrids one-to-one.”

A list of all hybrids in this regional test is available at www.firstseedtests.com

Next year, F.I.R.S.T. expects to expand it testing into Michigan’s Thumb region.