By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

WILLIAMSVILLE, Ill. — Out of 81 corn varieties tested at a Sangamon County, Ill., farm last year, a Channel brand took the top-yielding spot with 252.2 bushels per acre.

Channel 214-14VT3P also ranked first with per-acre gross income in the full-season seed test, at $1,047.90. Coming in second in income – at $1,012.40 – and yield was Horizon variety 71PV08R, at 243.5 bushels per acre. Third in yield with 242.3 bushels per acre was LG Seeds’ LG2620VT3, but the variety ranked fifth in gross income, at $1,000.10.

The test site, owned by Bruce and Nick Constant, was previously planted to soybeans and consisted of Tama silt loam, moderately well-drained, non-irrigated with minimum fall till.

The soil was a high-potassium and –phosphorus variety, planted April 30, 2010, with 32,000 corn test seeds per acre. On Sept. 21, F.I.R.S.T. Manager Eric Beyers harvested 31,000 plants per acre. (This was the same planting rate and return realized in the early-season test mentioned below.)
The average yield for this test was 225.3 bushels per acre and its average gross income was $931.90 per acre.

In the early-season corn test on the same site involving 72 varieties, ranking first in yield was Beck variety 5442VT3 at 249.4 bushels per acre; it also ranked tops in gross income per acre, at $1,038.10. Its moisture content was 18.5 percent, just slightly less than top-yielder Channel’s in the full-season test of 18.8. Moisture content for the top 30 varieties in each test didn’t vary much on either side of these numbers.

In the early-season test, coming in second for yield was Stine variety 9731VT3Pro, with 245.6 bushels per acre; third was NuTech’s 3T-110 with a slightly lower 245.2 bushels. NuTech, however, was second in gross income, at $1,023.70, and Stine came in third at $1,022.90

Average yield in the early-season test was 216.6 bushels per acre; average gross income was $906.60.

“The site’s harvested grain had excellent kernel depth due in part to timely rainfall during July,” said Beyers of the farm’s high harvest numbers. “Gray leaf spot disease pressure was moderately high,” he added, noting that fungicide had been applied. “Standability was good, with no lodging at this site.”
Would you like your farm to host a test plot for F.I.R.S.T.? Testing locations are opening for 2011; monitor www.firstseedtests.com/news.htm to learn more.