2020 Corn Harvest Illustrates Importance of Planting Multiple Hybrids
This year will provide all of us with great information for positioning Latham® corn hybrids. As we pour over mounds of data from the 2020 corn harvest, “variability” best describes this season. Hybrids that have worked well in Latham Country are rising to the upper 10% or higher in plots, but we are seeing wider variation than in past years across F.I.R.S.T. Trials, SuperStrips™, MiniStrips and showcase plots.
The Latham lineup continued to perform well in F.I.R.S.T. Trials as you have seen or heard from John Latham’s weekly “Made to Win” video broadcast and frequent e-mails. Our F.I.R.S.T. Trials performance shows that, from early to late, the Latham portfolio offers great hybrids for your customers. Although your favorite hybrid may not have placed as high this season as in the past, most likely one of its recommended companion hybrids had a great year in 2020!
Reviewing F.I.R.S.T. data from the past three season shows that you have a strong lineup to present to your customers. The F.I.R.S.T. Trials results should provide you the confidence to promote a package of hybrids to each of your customers.
Showcase and SuperStrip performance provides data, showing an edge over our competitors and an improvement in consistency of favored hybrid performance. You might ask, “Why would this occur in these plots?” When planning our Showcase and SuperStrip plot sets, we work to create packages that perform well together. Your Regional Sales Manager has very good knowledge of the environments into which these plots get planted. Your help identifying grower challenges are key in helping your RSM position the best of our lineup in your plots.
These plots in 2020 showed us that fine-tuning the positioning of the Latham lineup provides strong performance that is widely adaptable with enough flexibility to help with our farmer-customers’ specific needs.
As we complete another season of pre-commercial testing in our MiniStrip plots, we are confirming the strength of our current lineup. The key hybrids that we talked about at Latham Dealer Kickoff, fall field days and early harvest presentations all rose to the upper percentile of our MiniStrips.
The stresses of 2020 provide us with an excellent opportunity to sort through the many options we have in new products. We have our eyes on some new hybrids and look forward to sharing more about them as they progress through the steps to become a Latham brand hybrid.
This season showed us just how important planting a third or fourth hybrid on your farm can be for your success.
