Do I plant a workhorse or a racehorse hybrid? That’s a typical question corn growers contemplate when making seed choices.
But with the growth of precision farming and advancing genetic progress, there’s now a new question to contemplate: should I plant a fixed, flex, or semi-flex hybrid?
In this edition of Real Agriculture Corn School, Pride Seeds market development agronomist Aaron Stevanus explains that seed companies are now evaluating their hybrids on these criteria to help growers pick the best hybrids for their farm and management program.
Stevanus explains that hybrids with fixed ear size tend to change very little when planted at different populations. A flex-ear hybrid, however, will get bigger given the right agronomic conditions and can maximize yield at lower populations. Then there’s the semi-flex ear – it has the ability to maintain size at higher populations and “flexes out” to preserve yield at lower populations.
In the video, Stevanus discusses how growers can best position the three hybrid types on their farm, and the potential this new conversation holds for variable rate planting and profitability.
Click here for more Corn School episodes.
Related: Racehorse vs Workhorse Hybrid — Which Should You Plant?
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