Decided to take the corn plot off yesterday. It was planted on May 27th. For fertility, we used SmartN upfront plus 250lbs of corn starter.
All of the varieties were standing perfectly. It was interesting to see the slight changes in final population.
In general terms, the flagship Pride and Dekalb varieties had final stands of 34-35,000, which is basically what we dropped.
2 of the NK varieties, along with the experimental Pride had noticeably lower final population (still 32,000+) but the fact that I could see it made me wonder why that would occur. Dekalb 52-84 also had lower population, but that was something I expected. Althougth it is has been an excellent performer for other areas, we have never had good luck with that variety in the area immediately around Haggerty.
That being said, the lower populations did not affect the yield as much as I would have thought.
The frost event in September has definitely taken the shine off the test weight, although I was pleasantly surprised that most were grade 3, and as such I think they will finish at 2 once dried.
Raccoons ate their share of several varieties. Of interest, similar to what we have found in the past, they really liked NK 9738 (along with the other NK varieties). Maybe this is why NK corn is liked by livestock producers? Makes you wonder why one would be tastier to the wildlife than others.
They also really liked Pride experimental XP20101G5 as well.
Thanks to Ryan Snobelen from Pride Seeds for assisting and to Dekalb for the weigh wagon.