Planted corn acres were high in 2023 and yields were a pleasant surprise in many cases. Research and development is the key for corn seed to weather the elements, and Jamie Horton, DEKALB brand manager says their R & D effort continues to evolve and get better as technology evolves.
“We continue to innovate with DEKALB,” she said. “We bring the best genetics forward and are testing throughout a lot of different environments. Our local teams are also further characterizing those products and we’re really getting a better understanding, especially as we take some of the digital learnings that we have, and some of the really cool technology that we have these days can really help those corn yields and helping us with picking the right genetics.”
New genetics are coming for the new season in 2024, and they’ll help address issues in 2023 even though the products have been years in the development stage.
“We’re excited to bring a new launch class out, but also as we looked at ‘23 we saw a lot of rootworm pressure, and so that’s something we continue to evaluate. We’re excited in ‘24 to bring a brand new trait to market with DEKALB VT4PRO™ with RNAi Technology. That’ll be a brand new trait coming and products available with DEKALB for 2024.”
When you’re weighing whether a new product is the right decision, Horton says looking at research and local data is important, and planting new hybrids on limited acres is an option.
“I think if you can test it on your own farm, that’s a great way to really understand that performance and that characterization and placement of those products,” Horton explained, “and certainly work with your local agronomist and dealer network as well to understand, hey what are those products and what are we seeing out of the new products of DeKalb. We certainly hope as we prepare for ‘24 that, I know we can’t predict the weather or environment, but we can make some of the choices now to hopefully at the end of the year have that yield and that ROI in your pocket.”
Browse their online seed catalog here.
