Hybrid Options for Consistent Performance

What’s the key benefit a product needs to deliver to make you buy it again and again? I’ll bet that most of the time, you’re looking for consistency. A product that’s stable. Reliable. Not flashy. A product you can depend on.

It’s no different when selecting corn hybrids. Often, you’ll find one that works well here or there but doesn’t perform consistently across variable soils or geographies. From plant health to ear flex to yield, chances are you’re seeking hybrids that are capable of firing on all cylinders and give you the ROI and yield potential you’re paying for.

With CROPLAN® hybrids, we look for consistent performers. Ultimately, the goal for our experimental products is for them to have the agronomics, the yield potential and the fit to be strong volume players for us — and strong performers for you. For commercial hybrids, we fine-tune geographic fit and management essentials. We determine the trait differences in stalks, grain quality, intactness and yield to help you make the best hybrid decisions for your farm.

Here are a few corn hybrids you should consider this year and what makes them exceptional.

If you’re looking for a hybrid that has great staygreen and intactness with strong stalks in the 101-day maturity range, 4188 SmartStax® RIB Complete® [VT Double PRO® RIB Complete] is a good choice. It’s a consistent product with great plant health characteristics. Its semi-flex ear allows lower densities, but it should respond with optimal yield potential when population is pushed. This is the product of choice across the Corn Belt with the plant health to put it in a category of its own.

For highly consistent performance on high-end acres, it’s important to plant a hybrid with strong early plant vigor. The 5073 SmartStax RIB Complete hybrid fits the bill, with consistent performance in the 110-day maturity range. Because it continues to add pounds to kernel weight late in the season, maximizing this hybrid with adequate nitrogen fertility and fungicide will optimize yield potential and late-season integrity. It’s a racehorse type of product that you’ll want on your best-performing acres.

You may be looking for a versatile hybrid that moves smoothly across yield zones, stands well, and has excellent grain quality and quick emergence. If this is the case, 5370 SmartStax RIB Complete [VT Double PRO RIB Complete] is a product that can optimize yield with nitrogen management and plant densities. Even though it has average tolerance to Goss’s wilt, it performs well at medium to high populations and does particularly well in the central and eastern Corn Belt.

For farmers dealing with Goss’s wilt issues, 5335 SmartStax RIB Complete [VT Double PRO RIB Complete] is an excellent choice. It’s similar genetically to 5370 but moves west better because of its Goss’s wilt tolerance and ear flex. If you need a hybrid that can be planted at medium to lower densities to allow for ear flex, 5678 SmartStax RIB Complete [VT Double PRO RIB Complete] delivers. Plus, it has the ability to move south and take heat very well. It can also handle the tougher acre as well as top-end portions of the field.

Not every hybrid has to be a test plot winner. But in my view, a good hybrid has to deliver consistent yield potential. It also needs to have the agronomics to fit the acre, so that if certain disease pressures are common in a geography, that hybrid can handle those as well as weather-induced events such as greensnap. Finally, it needs to stand well and have solid stalk quality, and we saw how important stalk integrity was during the 2019 season. Personally, I like to see a hybrid with optimal plant health and a wide harvest window. Not every hybrid will have this, but I like hybrids that, even if they’re harvested late, don’t leave stalks or ears lying on the ground.

Finally, don’t neglect to use technology to choose the best hybrids for your needs. Whether it’s response to nitrogen, response to population, response to fungicide or response to rotation, CROPLAN has the ability to sort out products to fit your desired field scenario. Use the WinField® United Characterization Charts (CHT Tool) to help you focus on what is important to you in a hybrid and select from those characteristics. If you’re looking for hybrids with a strong response to fungicide, for example, the CHT Tool uses that metric to help you make your selection. It can also take all the response-to scores into consideration and find the exact fit for your farm, with an elite data set across multiple replications.

Talk with your local trusted advisor today about choosing the hybrids that will work best for you and deliver the most consistent performance.

All photos are either the property of WinField United or used with permission.

© 2019 WinField United. Important: Before use always read and follow label instructions. Crop performance is dependent on several factors many of which are beyond the control of WinField United, including without limitation, soil type, pest pressures, agronomic practices, and weather conditions. Growers are encouraged to consider data from multiple locations, over multiple years, and be mindful of how such agronomic conditions could impact results. WinField® and CROPLAN® are trademarks of WinField United.

SmartStax® and VT Double PRO® are trademarks used under license from Bayer Group.