March 28, 2024

Annual test plots educate farmers, dealers on resistance

COLFAX —John McLaughlin walks along a wall of corn stalks at his DuPont Pioneer Hybrid test plot at Central Iowa Seeds in Colfax. A group of farmers ranging from their early 30s to early 80s, wearing wangler jeans, T-shirts and billed caps, follow as the seed dealer describes some of the new varieties from hybrid tech's new lineup for spring planting.

"This is the 1197. Feel how heavy the ears are," McLaughlin said as he passed around a sample ear. "I’ve notice that with a lot of fields. I think it’s going to be a big player for us. Pretty much everybody has some."

He continued to a hybrid with a 109 day growth period. McLaughlin said Central Iowa Seed employees sprayed it with fungicide at the V5 growth stage and said "this thing stayed clean forever."

"Here’s our old reliable, 1151. It will have a wonderful year this year. It likes water. It can take droughtage, but it likes water too," he explained. "Sometimes the ears aren’t real impressive, but it’s really good, heavy grain. We’ll sell a lot of it. It’s a double."

The Pioneer Field Day at Central Iowa Seeds' Colfax test sight is a way for the dealer to familiarize with new hybrids and products, but it is also a visual for farmers to educate themselves how different varieties will react in their fields.

McLaughlin said farmers have been dealing with sudden death syndrome in soy beans for many years, but new corn hybrids are being developed to fight Northern Corn Leaf Blight. The disease, which is caused by a fungus, has become more prevalent in the corn belt since the mid to late 2000s, according to the University of Purdue's Botany and Plant Pathology department. McLaughlin said the pathogen can cause yield loss in the reproductive or tasseling stage.

“Sudden Death has been around for quite a while. Northern Corn leaf blight has been around for a couple years," he said. "And it hasn’t been just northern corn leaf blight, but that’s been the major one this year. There is a lot of gray leaf spot and anthracnose."

With a corn suitability rating in the 90s and the best tech at his disposable, McLaughlin's test plot is clean with little disease. Although the seed dealer said the test plot benefits his ability to sell hybrids — allowing him to explain a variety's growth process, resistance and yield potential — he said the event is a good way to give farmers a visual representation of the hybrid number issued by Pioneer.

Row crop farmers John Brandhof and his son Austin Brandhof relaxed at a table between the grill and the test field at the Sept. 10 event. They plant their own test plot on their Mitchellville operation just six miles west of Prairie City. The Brandhofs coordinate results with McLaughlin to see how the newly released hybrids perform in lower CSRs and different soil types. They said northern blight is a definite concern for area farmers as they prepare to enter the fields over the next two to three months. Austin Brandhof said an unpredictability in climate trends the past several season has affected the sudden death and blight.

"The weather and climate patterns have a lot to do with it too," he said. "The weather conditions have been unsteady."

John Brandhof added, "We never had the big heavy 5-inch rains here that were received elsewhere. But if you go north or you go south, they had those rains. Around here we have a really good crop coming on."

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@jaspercountytribune.com