By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

FAYETTE, Ohio — AgriGold A6459VT3 topped out the other hybrids in a late-season corn test on a plot farmed by Randy Carothers in Fulton County, Ohio.

Yielding 148 bushels to the acre, it surpassed Great Lakes 6255G3VT3 with 139.1 bu./acre and iCORN.com 112.VT3 with 135.8 bu./acre.

The corn had a gross income of $723.30. It was grown on sandy loam with a 0.5 percent slope, well drained, conventional till. Carothers applied 300 pounds of potash in the fall, 170 pounds of nitrogen as NH3 sidedress plus 20 gallons 10-34-0 as a starter.
The 32,000 seedling crop was planted May 9 and 29,600 plants were harvested Oct. 18.

“Data was rejected on the late-season test because of the variance within the test,” said F.I.R.S.T. Manager Rich Schleuning. “There was too much variance across the test results to use in our final summary. We wanted to print the data; we are showing the test as a harvest report, but the harvest report will not be used in the zone summary.

“We started out with pretty decent conditions. The rainfall in April was average; it was above average in May and the first half of June and after that they didn’t see any rain in July or August. The hurricane caused some lodging. However we had a subsoil variance in this plot that showed and played a big difference in the data.”
The variation was in the test of least significant difference (LSD) and the coefficient of variation (CV).

Testing and seed companies look at the LSD and CV more in depth than farmers do, Schleuning said.

“We look at LSD very intensely when we look at testing,” Schleuning said. That LSD helps us explain what else has taken place. When you look at the late season test the LSD really jumps up, and so does the CV rating to the point where we know that the variances are way too wide. It is skewed data.”

Results from an early-season test on Carothers farm were not rejected. Those results showed Midwest Seed 72116VT3 at the top of the list yielding 148.1 bu./acre with a gross income of $752.2 outperforming DeKalb RX674VT3, yielding 136.7 bu./acre and Rupp XR8045 yielding 133 bu./acre respectively.