vol. 23 December 2012
The Seed Consultant
A B I - M O N T H LY N E W S L E T T E R N E W S A N D V I E W S F R O M T H E F I E L D
Lessons Learned From 2012 Most farmers will be happy to see the 2012 growing season in their rear view mirror. However, tough seasons do give us some opportunities to learn and become better managers. Also, plant breeders get a great opportunity to select for tolerance to drought and heat stress and develop superior products and we will be releasing additional drought tolerant hybrids in the near future. Soil type is very important in growing crops, especially in abnormal conditions. The drastic difference in yield on different soils in response to heat and drought was amazing. The difference was mostly due to the amount of organic matter and the water retention capacity of various soils. We saw a range of 10 bushels to 120 bushels per acre on one of the farms that we used for our Crop Watch program this year. Even though plant breeders have done an excellent job of developing new hybrids, in many areas it did not make much difference which corn hybrid you planted, if you did not get timely rains in July and August and were sitting in an oven. Don’t overreact to what happened this year. It was a one-in-fifty year type of growing season. If I was a betting man, I would not bet on a repeat of similar conditions next year .
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2013 Winter agronomy meetings Attend a meeting in your area
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winter maintenance A little winter work can ease spring planting
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Here are some pointers you can use for 2013: continued on page 2
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2013 Hybrid selection Positioning hybrids for best performance
SCI PROFILE SCI Seedsman Brian George
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