ASK THE AGRONOMIST BLOG

At Stine, our agronomy department is focused on the future and has a full agenda for the 2023 farming season. From planting to harvest, our agronomy team’s goal is to conduct more in-field analysis of product performance, including the hybrids and varieties that have advanced to our Elite Yield Trials and are close to commercialization.

“Previously, we focused more on current product offerings and their performance in our sales territories,” says Tom Larson, director of agronomy. “That will still be a part of our strategy moving forward, but this year we’re going to spend more time with the products in our Elite Yield Trials so that we can gain information that will aid in the selection process of future products.” 

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PLOTS

Stine^® agronomy has coined this research as the Product Development Plot program — an effort that will allow us to review all Stine germplasm from our Elite Yield Trials through replicated strip trial plots throughout the country.

“Our agronomy team will be charged with managing the entire program — from finding the locations for each plot to getting the seed ready, planting the plots, taking notes and checking yields,” says Larson. “We’ll also use the plots to train our sales team on how these new products will perform in their regions so that nothing is left to interpretation.”

Plot setup

To ensure consistency in research, the agronomy team has strict guidelines in place. Each corn plot will be planted by height or maturity with a minimum of 12 row plots with the center six rows harvested. Each side of the plot will have a 15-foot barrier to minimize risk of outside factors coming into the field.

“Our goal with only harvesting the centers of our corn plots is to eliminate the potential for shading or any other outside influence along the field barriers that can impact yield,” says Larson. “This is especially true for corn as Stine has shorter-stature material compared to competitors. We want a true sampling of these products.”

Each corn plot length has a 300-foot minimum. The agronomy team will test both glyphosate and non-glyphosate plots. They’ve also nailed down specific dates for the plot seed to be bagged and shipped to ensure its timely arrival for planting. Agronomists will also conduct Stine’s emergence study at these plots to evaluate corn emergence to demonstrate how uniform emergence impacts ears and yield.

On the soybean side, plots will be planted by maturity, with a minimum of eight rows and a plot length of 400-feet. The planting population for each plot will be 140k/acre.

“Our goal is to have a total of 30 corn and 30 soybean plots planted throughout our sales territory at a minimum,” says Larson. We want to make sure the products perform the way we expect them to. And, of course, we’ll compare them to competitor hybrids and varieties of similar maturity for an even playing ground.” 

Data collected

All agronomic data will be collected by the agronomy team. Specifically, for corn they will look at emergence scores as they relate to seed treatments; disease ratings; general plant observations; plant, ear, leaf and tassel height; silking and pollination dates; test weight, moisture and yield; and harvestable ear percentage. For soybeans, they’ll look at emergence scores; disease ratings; general plant observations; vegetive/pod development; pollination; moisture; and yield.

“Stine agronomists will also offer two agronomy training sessions for our sales team per Stine region to ensure they’re equipped with the right facts and messaging about each product,” says Larson. “Our goal is not only to see how these products perform for our own knowledge, but also to gather all possible data prior to commercialization so that we’re better able to place the products in growers’ fields.

Stay tuned for next week’s agronomic outlook article; we’ll be discussing Stine’s Success Demo Plots. To connect with a Stine agronomist, contact us here.

For the past three years, Stine has celebrated women in agriculture in March at the crossroads of Women’s History Month and National Ag Week. We’ve shared stories of women who’ve made their mark at Stine and those outside our company who help the ag industry flourish. As we prepare for our fourth annual Women in Ag campaign, we’re seeking your input. We want to know — Who is a woman in ag who has inspired you? Is it your wife, mother, daughter, neighbor, a family friend or a trusted colleague? If you’re willing to share her story and how she impacted your life, we would love to hear about it. Even more, we’d love to feature this inspirational woman in our upcoming Women in Ag campaign this March.

If interested in participating, please submit your responses to marcom@stineseed.com, along with the name and role of the woman who has inspired you. And, if you think she’d be interested, we’d love the opportunity to reach out to her directly to offer an opportunity to be featured on our social media pages or in an upcoming blog. We would just need her email address or phone number and, of course, her permission to share her story.

Women from all walks of agriculture have helped define our industry. With your help, we look forward to celebrating them and sharing their stories with our audiences across the country.

Interested in learning more about our past women in ag campaigns? Check out our blog.   

The industry is abuzz about short corn, and Stine has been at the forefront of the conversation. We’re no stranger to short corn. In fact, we don’t shy away from saying we invented short-stature corn. Then, we perfected it. Now, the rest of the industry is catching on, and more and more seed companies are speaking out about their iterations of short corn. We’re pleased the rest of the industry has joined our way of thinking — and that the ag media has been willing to help share our story. Check out some of the articles we’ve been featured in recently.

1/31/23, Brownfield Ag News, “Short stature corn is a big topic at the Iowa Ag Expo.” (Brownfield Ag News’ Mark Dorenkamp catches up with Stine national director of sales and marketing David Thompson at the Iowa Ag Expo to discuss short-stature, high-density corn and the outlook for the company in 2023.)

1/31/23, No-Till Farmer, “Shorter corn offers more yield potential.” (No-Till Farmer’s Dan Crummett interviews industry seed officials, including Stine president Myron Stine on the features, benefits and future of shorter corn.)

1/27/23, Indiana Prairie Farmer, “Why future corn rows may be narrower.” (Indiana Prairie Farmer’s Tom Bechman discusses pushing planting populations with narrow rows and shorter hybrids with Stine president Myron Stine.)

1/26/23, Indiana Prairie Farmer, “What you should know about short corn.” (Indiana Prairie Farmer’s Tom Bechman provides an update on how various companies are approaching the development of short corn, including Stine.)

1/19/23, Wallaces Farmer, “Stine Seed yields success from humble beginnings.” (Wallaces Farmer’s Jennifer Carrico takes a deep dive into Stine’s history and the advancement of our corn and soybean genetics, including our research in short-stature corn.)

11/21/22, Axios Des Moines, “Iowa's race for short, weather-sturdy corn.” (Axios Des Moines’ Jason Clayworth interviews Myron Stine to explore the story of short corn and why it matters to the industry.)

11/8/22, Wall Street Journal, “Farmers find new short corn a tall order.” (Wall Street Journal’s Patrick Thomas shares a different take on short-stature, high-density corn — from seed companies to farmers to corn maze operators.)

Interested in learning more about Stine’s short-stature corn? Contact us or visit our website.