532.0271 BPA Corn... 2015 new record

[TOM4CWB]

NEWS
532 BPA: Another Corn Record
Yield Crown Goes Back to Virginia's Hula
Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:47 AM CST

By DTN Staff


David Hula of Charles City, Virginia, recaptured bragging rights to the world record corn yield with his 532.0271 bushels per acre entry into the 2015 National Corn Growers Association Yield Contest. (DTN file photo by Jim Patrico)
OMAHA (DTN) -- Another year, another corn yield record.

David Hula of Charles City, Virginia, recaptured bragging rights to the world record corn yield with his 532.0271 bushels per acre entry into the 2015 National Corn Growers Association Yield Contest. That mark beat the 2014 yield of 503.7910 produced from Valdosta, Georgia, farmer Randy Dowdy, which marked the first time a U.S. corn yield contest entry topped the 500-bushel mark.

Hula's record yield came in the no-till/strip-till irrigated category. Dowdy had the top yield in the regular irrigated category, and the second- highest yield overall, with 486.1594 bushels per acre. NCGA officials said there was a record five entries that topped the 400-bushels-per-acre mark.

The national average corn yield for the 2015 crop year, according to current USDA projections, was 169.3 bushels per acre.

NCGA released results from its 2015 contests Friday. It was the 51st year of the corn contest, which saw 7,729 entries.

"The National Corn Yield Contest drives so many corn farmers to initially join NCGA," Patty Mann, chairwoman of NCGA's Grower Services Action Team, said in a press release. "While they may initially join to gain contest entry, these members become increasingly involved and supportive as they learn more about the breadth of activities NCGA carries out on farmers' behalf.

The 2015 season isn't Hula's first world record. He broke previous marks in 2013 with a 455-bushel-per-acre yield

[TOM4CWB]

NEWS
My, What Big Ears You Have!
Monsanto's New GE Corn Clears Regulatory Hurdle

Emily Unglesbee DTN Staff Reporter

Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:57 AM CST
ST. LOUIS (DTN) -- There's a new kind of corn around the corner.


Monsanto's new genetically engineered corn shows an 11.7% increase in ear size in R1 stages

On Dec. 4, USDA finalized its deregulation of MON 87403, Monsanto's new corn hybrid genetically engineered in collaboration with BASF to produce larger ears of corn.

Although the trait is still several years away from commercialization, its deregulation may herald a new era in crop biotechnology that looks beyond pest control, said Nathan Fields, the National Corn Growers Association's director of biotechnology and economic analysis.

"In the past, biotech traits have served the primary point of protecting the yield that base genetics create," Fields told DTN. "So this is a bit of game changer in that regard. It's a biotech trait aimed squarely at increasing yield."

MON 87403 was engineered to direct more resources in the corn plant to the ear as early as the R1 growth stage, according to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS) plant pest risk assessment. Company trials handed over to the agency showed an 11.7% increase in ear biomass at R1 as well as a 10% increase in "biomass partitioning" (the ratio of ear biomass to total biomass) in MON 87403 compared to control hybrids.

"Greater ear biomass during the early reproductive stages provides increased yield opportunity in maize," Monsanto told APHIS in its petition for deregulation.

The company hopes to combine the increased biomass trait with its herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant biotech traits in its elite corn hybrids, Monsanto Communications Manager Jeff Neu told DTN in an email. "It's part of Monsanto's efforts to partner with growers to produce more while consuming fewer resources," he wrote.

The trait moved through the often lengthy regulatory process with comparative ease, which put its deregulation further out from commercialization than is typical with biotech crops, Fields noted.

"The advantage that this trait does have is that it is not associated with any kind of pesticides or any kind of herbicide-tolerance, so there are no crop chemical counterparts to this trait," he said. "It made it through the USDA regulatory system in a very efficient timeframe because of those advantages, so Monsanto is still not fully through all of their R&D process."

The company "still needs to continue to go through our own meticulous portfolio process, demonstrating the performance results Monsanto and its customers demand," Neu confirmed. "There currently is no timetable for a launch."

Along with continued testing and field trials, the company will need to wait for full international regulatory approvals before it hits the market, Neu added.

For more information on MON 87403, see USDA's announcement of its deregulation and the public posting of the agency's various risk assessments here: http://1.usa.gov/…

Emily Unglesbee can be reached at emily.unglesbee@dtn.com

Follow Emily Unglesbee on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee

[Guest]

as always , just great news for Ag?.?.? produce more , wear out more machinery , buy more bins , bags , etc ? for less money all the time . WTF good is this to a farmer ? don't you understand ? these bragging bs stories are for the other end of the spectrum , the people we supply a living to.

[tweety]

How big of an area was the yield calculated over?

[dalek]

His plots are usually 8-10 acres. His yield average across all his corn acres is in the 200 bu neighbourhood. The contest plot is pretty spoiled, from underground drip irrigation to being sidedressed by hand at tasselling.

[ajl]

When (and if) there are ever 9 billion people on earth the challenge for AG is what do we do with the glut of ag commodities. Same as it is today.

[Guest]

right on ajl. and for some reason this type of news excites some supposed farmers , I just don't get it ? all there ever gonna leave us is scraps . so why shoot for the moon and incur all the extra risk

[furrowtickler]

100 bus canola and 500 bus corn is going to be needed to pay for $1.5 million seeding outfits , $700,000 combines , $600,000 sprayers and high land prices . If you think growing ave crops is going to do it - your dreaming .