Agronomists around the Corn Belt marveled at the 2023 corn crop’s ability to yield in the face of less-than-ideal weather conditions. Brian Weihmeir, an LG Seeds agronomist based in Illinois, says strong yields are a testament to the dramatic gains in the ability of a hybrid to tolerance stress.
Weihmeir, “When you go back to the month of June, there was a lot of guys who were wanting to cut back some of their inputs just because we were going through such stressful conditions, and the crop looks so rough when you’re going out in the middle of the afternoon walk in your fields. But when you look back at a lot of the growers who stuck with their game plans that they had in place and looked at the different things on their farm that continuously give them high yield and contribute to their success, it really paid off when they took the combine through the field. They were seeing those gains, they were seeing those advantages. And so, I think when you look at the resilience of this crop and even the stress that we went through, it’s important to never give up on a corn crop or a soybean crop until that combine goes through the field.”
Weihmeir says the most important lesson from the 2023 growing season was to never give up on a crop. As farmers prepare for 2024, Weihmeir advises them to incorporate practices and products that complement their management plan.
Weihmeir says, “I think if you were to ask any growers back in the month of June that we were going to have the crop that we had this fall, I think they would have thought you were crazy. But if you look back at the growing season, there’s really a couple of different things that we can look at and contribute to the high yields that we saw. So, one of the things that I think was really key was the fact that we had a really nice planting season, and so we were planting those seeds and putting those plants in an ideal growing environment to thrive. The other thing was we didn’t have a lot of drowned-out spots in our fields, so when you take those places out when you look at a yield map, it’s amazing how fast your farm average goes up taking those drowned-out spots.”
Story above provided by the NAFB News Service
For support reaching your yield goals, reach out to your local LG seeds agronomist or visit LGSeeds.com. You can also watch more on this topic as Jesse Allen talked with Brian Weihmeir on the Wednesday episode of Market Talk Watch the video below:
