“Definitely Better Corn”
When your yield monitor reveals a nearly 20-bushel-per-acre advantage in an on-farm test for a new corn hybrid, you take notice.
That’s exactly what happened when Harvey Reed of Lewisville, Minn., checked the results on a test strip of Mycogen® brand 2P486, a SmartStax® hybrid he planted in 2010. Reed planted the SmartStax hybrid side by side with Mycogen brand 2P484, a YieldGard VT Triple® hybrid with similar genetics.
Reed’s yield monitor displayed a 10- to 19-bushel-per-acre yield increase for the SmartStax hybrids.
“It surprised me that SmartStax was that much better since the hybrids were the same (genetics),” Reed says.
Quality corn with excellent stalks
Reed recalls he could easily spot the Mycogen SmartStax corn throughout the summer.
“It was greener and it stood better,” he says. “You could always pick it out, right down to the row.”
Weather in central Minnesota during the 2010 growing season wasn’t as erratic as many other parts of the Midwest, but there were some events that might have jeopardized Reed’s corn crop. With its strong stalks and roots, the 97-day 2P486 remained intact throughout the growing season.
“(At one point) we got 13 inches of rain, and I had the SmartStax on rolling ground and it stood just as straight as an arrow,” Reed says.
Broad-spectrum protection
Mycogen SmartStax® hybrids deliver the broadest spectrum of in-plant insect protection — including European corn borer, corn rootworm, corn earworm, fall armyworm, western bean cutworm and black cutworm — through multiple modes of action. Reed says even though there was pest pressure on his farm, he didn’t see any insect damage in the SmartStax corn.
SmartStax reduces the “hassle” of managing your refuge, too, Reed says. The above- and below-ground refuge requirement is only 5 percent, compared with 20 percent for first generation Bt corn.
Would he recommend SmartStax to other growers? The answer is yes.
“I’d tell them we’ve had awfully good luck with it and I would highly recommend it.”