Dutch Rovers, a Chazy farmer who left us far too early, used to plant about a dozen guard rows around the corn fields intended for high moisture shelled corn, and in September he’d chop the guard rows for silage to open up the fields prior to grain harvest. One year he decided to save some money on seed corn by planting an old (and once very popular) hybrid in the guard rows. It was from the same seed company and similar Relative Maturity as the hybrid he’d planted for grain harvest, but somewhat less expensive per unit. He’d grown the old hybrid before so knew how it would do — or thought he did. I happened to be on the farm just as he started chopping the guard rows, and Dutch was not a happy camper. Because it was very obvious that the newer hybrid was clearly superior, dwarfing the difference in seed price — yet another case of “penny wise and pound foolish”. Live and learn!
In the “old days” (50+ years ago) most corn hybrids planted in this region were “station releases”: These were hybrids developed by Land Grant University plant breeders and sold by Agway and other farm supply stores. Corn hybrids commonly planted in Northern New York back then included Penn 290, Wisconsin 335A, New England 144 and Cornell M-3 and M-4, and they were planted year after year. A few companies including Pioneer and DeKalb were selling their brand of seed corn, but this was nothing like the dozen or so seed companies now doing business in the North Country.
In choosing corn hybrids farmers should rely on the “Something old, something new” idea: Remembering how their hybrids performed that year, they should order seed of their best performers, However, they should also consider university trial results and seed company rep suggestions and order one or more new hybrids — either new on the market or new to them. And while there are exceptions, the longer the hybrid has been on the market (as in the case of the one Dutch used in his guard rows) the greater the chance that there are now better hybrids available. The newest hybrids will usually be more expensive per unit, but at a planting rate of 35,000 kernels/acre, resulting in about 2.3 acres per 80,000 kernel unit, it doesn’t take much difference in performance to make a more expensive hybrid the better choice.
— Ev Thomas