Today’s corn hybrids have seen significant changes from the first commercially available hybrid seed corn. Even in the last decade, major advancements have been made in the process of bringing a hybrid to the market.
Technology in corn breeding, like genome mapping, gene editing and utilization of native traits, has drastically improved top-end yield potential. And, more importantly, it has raised the bottom-end stability of today’s corn hybrids. Reducing Mother Nature’s impact on final yield has removed the “feast or famine” type variability of years past and given us a more stable and predictable corn crop, year in and year out.
Champion Seed leverages relationships with several breeding programs and multiple trait providers to bring to the market corn hybrids that are specifically bred to deliver top-end yield while minimizing the impact of local diseases and adverse growing conditions.
Drought has been a major concern for much of the western corn belt for four consecutive growing seasons. Yet, unlike corn crops from droughts in the 1980s and 1990s, yields in these seasons have been rather strong. This is where science meets the field.
How Champion Seed finds the most competitive corn hybrids
First, breeders identify specific genes known to offer season-long drought tolerance by maintaining normal growth in dry spells and improving water and nutrient uptake with a robust root system. But just identifying these genes doesn’t guarantee these hybrids will have the yield to make it into a Champion Seed bag.
Part two is when the seeds are tested in real-world environments across hundreds of locations in varying geographies with different soil types and weather patterns. These plot locations are taken to yield and only the elite products move forward to another year of testing. After four years of testing, only a handful of products from the original breeding pipeline remain to be evaluated for commercial release.
After a rigorous evaluation process that reveals county-level data, winning hybrids are identified. They must not only deliver great yield, but also strong disease and stress tolerance. Only the best of the best find themselves in a Champion Seed bag.
How we prioritize results
Products like 56B23 Trecepta, 58A21 VT2 Pro, 63B24 Powercore and 65A23 Trecepta have shown tremendous stability and yield performance despite the adverse conditions of the past growing seasons.
The weather patterns of any given growing season are the biggest and most influential variable to a crop. Selecting hybrids that have the stress tolerance and stability to handle it all consistently proves to be the best choice over selecting the plot-topping yield power of a hybrid that can’t weather what Mother Nature throws at it.
Interested in learning more about our test results in top-notch corn hybrids available from Champion Seed? Check out our yield results.
