February 19, 2009
Every
year, thousands of corn farmers
around the country take part in
the
National Corn Growers
Association’s National Corn
Yield Contest. In doing so, they
provide reams of data on their
farming practices, data that add
up over the years to provide a
good look at some yield-boosting
techniques. And these techniques
are setting the future of corn
growing. “The contest is a
leading indicator of what the
future holds for corn innovation
and corn potential,” said Dave
Alley, a senior consultant for
Informa Economics.
Reviewing this information that has accrued during the last 12 years of the yield contest, compared to available farming data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), revealed some interesting trends, says Ken Eriksen, senior vice president for Informa Economics, a data analysis company.
“We didn’t have any expectations going in, other than we knew yields were going higher,” Eriksen said. What Informa found was that on many different areas, national Corn Yield Contest growers were ahead of the innovation curve.
“The highest determinant of good yield is how many plants you have per acre. We compared NASS data down to the county level as well as contest data, and over time, farmers in the contest are planting more seed and are getting more plants per acre,” Eriksen says.
While the seeding rate has risen modestly over time, it has made a noticeable difference in yields, points out Alley. However, when Informa compared NASS state yield averages to the averages in the yield contest, it discovered a big time lag between contest entrants and non-entrants. “State averages are at least 10 years behind what’s happening in the corn yield contest,” Alley said.
The 2008 National Corn Yield Contest Guide appears as a supplement in the mid-February Farm Journal, and is now available here for download. This year, in addition to the details on all 520 contest winners, it includes a detailed story looking at this ground-breaking research by Informa Economics.