20—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. April 29,1967
Plant Breeder Advises Farmers
On Conducting Own Corn Trials
‘•The only good corn hybddsdifTerence
arc the ones that give you hybrid is
high yields The hybrid that
pioduces 200 bushels per acre
somewhere else isn’t worth a
lead nickel to you if it doesn’t
produce high yields on your
land.” an agionomist recently
stated
How do you find out which
hybrids are best for you? One
way is to run your own hybrid
corn trials, says Dr R. H. Cole,
chairman of the department of
agronomy at the Univeisity of
Delawai e
Cole savs good advice on
running yom own corn trials
was reported by William D
Pardee, Cornell University
plant breedei. in March, 1967,
Crops and Soils magazine Par
dee recommends testing only
four to six hybrids at a time:
choose varieties that look good
in nearby expeument station
trials or those your neighbors
are excited about The plot
for each hybnd should be at
least four rows wide by sev
eral hundred feet long Don’t
be tempted to compare big
blocks planted to each hybnd,
Pardee cautions Differences
due to soil vaiiation often can
be greater than the differences
between the varieties you are
testing
Plant all hybrids the same
day in the same way, use
equal rates of feitihzer and
the same heibieides If your
field slopes, uin your plots up
and over the slope so that
each hybnd has an equal
chance to glow on low and
high ground In short Pardee
writes, tieat the plots alike in
eveiy way so you can meas
ure diffeiences between vane
ties, not differences in hand
ling
How can you tell whether
the diffeiences you get are ac
tual differences due to soil or
other variations’
Your best bet is to run du
plicate tests in seveial fields,
and then figuie average yields!
for each hybrid If the hybrids
lank the same in each test—
then a five bushel difference
may be enough to indicate an
economically significant differ
ence between these hybrids
If the h>buds rank differ
ently between fields, with one
hvbnd tops in one field but
only middling in another, then
look foi at least 10 bushels
yield betoie deciding that one
A stoiy fi om New Dehli says
maiaudmg elephants have be
come a majm pioblem They
aie also upsetUng a major po
litical gioup in this country
NEED EXTRA SEED
FOR EXTRA
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For top producing corn,
r sorghum, FD-100 alfalfa—Calk
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Drumore
L. J. DEMLIXGER
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EUGENE SPOTTS
Honey Brook
RAY D. DEITER
Lancaster
PAUL E. GERMAN
Lititz
WILLIS WEAVER
Mi. Joy
ELI O. NOLT
New Holland
in overall average
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Pardee advises.
It your tests don’t look at
all alike from field to field,
with a test-topper in one field
hitting bottom in another, and
no apparent similarity—then
look for at least 15 bushels
difference in average yield be-
More Dairymen
fore you decide you’ve meas
ured a difference that’s eco
nomically significant, the plant
breeder said.
This rule-of-thumb guide dif
fers from the precise statisti
cal significance computed by
experiment stations for their
V Vv
FI.
ii
Kornco Uni-pel dairy feeds, formulated
by D. H. Von Pelt .could improve your dairy
operation. Why not check withyourneigh-
N
bor who feeds Hornco. Then calf us direct
for an appoinfmenf with Mr. Van Pelf.
tests Still, it gives
approximation of h
the testing effort
reliable the results
how many bushels
needed before gamb
one hybrid is better
other, he concluded.
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