The Ontario Corn Committee (OCC) is well known for its hybrid trials, which compare hybrids for yield potential in various regions across the province, but, thanks to grower input, this year might look a little different.
2011-2014 OCC Hybrid Corn Performance Database
“The Ontario Corn Committee has decided that in 2015, we will begin a new initiative,” said Greg Stewart, corn specialist for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. “We will do the standard performance testing (so you might have 100 hybrids in a performance trial, where we’d evaluate them all for yield), but parallel to that, we would have a management trial.”
The management trial will look at how hybrids respond to “normal” management scenarios, compared to those with differing levels of inputs.
“It will give us the chance to economically evaluate how hybrids are responding to inputs,” said Stewart.
In this episode of the Corn School, filmed at the Southwest Agricultural Conference in Ridgetown, Stewart expands on the structure of the OCC, what the trials will look like, and what they could inspire for future research.
