Corn School: How poor kernel set impacts yield

by

Good kernel set — from the tip to the butt of the ear — plays a key role in achieving high corn yield.

But every year growers run into environmental and agronomic challenges the can lead to poor pollination, aborted kernels and a significant impact on yield. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Corn School, PRIDE Seeds agronomist Stephanie Myslik says poor kernel set is something growers and agronomists see every year, but these poor ears were more widespread in 2023.

According to Myslik, one of the key agronomic contributors is uneven emergence — something growers saw plenty of this spring as a lack of moisture and dry planting conditions produced high numbers of late-emerging seeds and uneven stands. When those plants fall behind they don’t catch up and aborted kernels are a typical symptom of their delayed development. “The plants have to come up together, they have to silk and tassel at the same time for the pollen to get the silks,” she says.

Myslick adds that heat and excessive moisture — something many Ontario corn fields experienced this year — can also cause pollination problems. On top of that,  the crop had to contend with smoke from Canadian wild fires and a general lack of sunlight, which can also compromise kernels.

What impact can those lost kernels have on yield? “The numbers say if you lose just one kernel per plant on 34,000 plants per acre, you can potentially lose up to five to six bushels of yield. So we really want to make sure we get kernel set right,” she says.

In the video, Myslick looks at how kernel set can vary from plant to plant in the row and shares tips on agronomic practices growers should consider to help mitigate the problem.

Tap here for more Corn School videos.

Wake up with RealAgriculture

Subscribe to our daily newsletters to keep you up-to-date with our latest coverage every morning.

Wake up with RealAgriculture

Other Episodes

Corn School (view all)Season 12 (2023) Episode 3
Episodes:

Please register to read and comment.

Privacy Preference Center

Necessary

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

gdpr, __cfduid, PHPSESSID, wordpress_test_cookie, woocommerce_items_in_cart, woocommerce_cart_hash, wp_woocommerce_session, wordpress_logged_in, wordpress_sec, wp-settings, wp-settings-time, __cf_mob_redir, wordpress_cache, realag
__cfduid

Marketing

Measuring interactions with the ads on the domain.

__gads,fsk_ut_2317
IDE

Statistics

These are used to track user interaction and detect potential problems. These help us improve our services by providing analytical data on how users use this site.

_ga,_gid,_gat,_cb,_chartbeat2,_chartbeat4
_ga,_gid
metrics_token

Preferences

Preference cookies enable the website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.

chartdefaults, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url
JSESSIONID, _os_session,anonymous_votes,csrf-param,csrf-token,user,user-id,user-platform,intercom-session,intercom-lou,intercom-session
personalization_id, tfw_exp

 

Register for a RealAgriculture account to manage your Shortcut menu instead of the default.

Register