Area Extension Agronomist Greg Endres shows the center's experimental plot where 66 varieties of hybrid corn are tested. (Steve Browne/VCTR)

By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record

For a farmer, investing in corn is expensive, and a difference of a few bushels per acre really matters when it comes to paying off costs of fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and a lot of specialized machinery.
Naturally, corn farmers want to plant the variety of corn that gives the highest yield per acre. So how do they chose among the dozens of varieties of hybrid corn offered by seed companies?
Just outside of Fingal, the North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center  operates a corn plot where 66 varieties of corn from 14 different seed companies were planted May 6, to test their yield, maturation time, disease resistance etc.
The project is a cooperation between the NDSU Carrington center, the Barnes County Crop Improvement Association, and the plot's owner, farmer Tom Langemo.
Thursday, Aug. 14, the center held their second annual tour for farmers and agronomists to demonstrate the project, and allow farmers to get a look at how the varieties of corn are doing. The tour was followed by breakfast at Langemo's home.
Each variety is planted in four sets of two rows, each double row is alternated with other varieties to cancel out any possible effect of favorable ground, according to  Area Extension Agronomist Greg Endres.
“We do not dictate the hybrids used, that's up to the seed companies,” said Blaine Schatz, Carrington Research Extension Center director. “We take out the sources of variation that may influence hybrid varieties.”
Langemo is paid for use of the land and to cover his expenses for preparing the ground and watching over it. He doesn't grow corn himself.

For full story, see Friday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.