A corn researcher says 2023 was not the first time farmers had surprising yields in a drought year.
Joe Lauer with the University of Wisconsin tells Brownfield getting the crop in early helped, but that was tempered by a the long wait for rain and, “Now, it seems like we can go a little bit longer and I think these modern hybrids are a just a lot better at tolerating some of those stress periods, in other words, they can get through them a lot easier than some of those older hybrids before the bioengineered era.”
Lauer says 2023 was not a record year, but was very productive despite only 7 inches of rain all season.