One of the most important decisions you’ll make for next year is happening now and can have a big impact on your yields and profits. That decision is choosing the right hybrids or varieties to plant across your acres.

Today, growers have more choices of hybrids and trait packages than ever before. The decision to pick the right hybrid can be overwhelming. It is very important to pick the right trait package, but also to pick the right mix of hybrids to cover all your acres. As good as hybrids are today there is not one hybrid that should be planted across all your acres.

Planting multiple corn hybrids or soybean varieties is one of the most important parts of your seed decision. Each hybrid or variety performance can differ for several reasons.

Weather

Some hybrids can handle drought conditions while others need more ideal rain and temperature conditions in order to perform. Weather is one thing that we cannot control, but programs like WeatherTrends360 can help make predictions with a certain level of accuracy. Using this tool helps growers make informed decisions using the historical data on hybrid performance and relating that to the upcoming year’s weather prediction.

Soil Types

Some areas have large variations in soil types, and this makes a large impact on hybrid performance. Many hybrids are proven to perform better in specific soil types, and in some areas, like my area of Ohio, there may be 5 to 6 soil types in one field. Placing hybrids by soil type has become more popular and feasible with programs such as Climate FieldView giving us better data to help with placing hybrids.

Disease and Insect Pressure

Disease pressure has a large impact on yield and making sure a hybrid can withstand the disease pressure in your area is extremely important. In some regions, Tar Spot has become a major concern and has a large impact on yield. Some hybrids can handle Tar Spot much better than others. Insect pressure such as corn rootworm has devastating effects on corn yields, thus rootworm protection is required.

Harvest Timing

You cannot harvest all your acres at once, so make sure you have hybrids that will be there when you are. Stalk strength is very important, along with harvest moisture. Spreading your maturity of products out helps to ensure that your corn or soybeans won’t become too dry and thus lose yield.

With all these factors added together, there is no question that yields are impacted greatly by hybrid placement and selection. Therefore, multiple hybrids should be planted to help mitigate stress and help protect your investment. Depending on your operation size, as many as 5 or 6 hybrids may be needed to meet your needs. LG Seeds has a tool to help with these placement decisions, the Mix Matters tool. This tool was built with recommendations from your local agronomist, along with data from plots across your area and information about your farming practices in order to help you with seed placement recommendations.

Seed placement and determining what hybrid and variety mix is right for your farm is not an easy decision. Let LG Seeds help you with that. Reach out to your Dealer, DSM, or Agronomist for help.