Advice for Growers Planting Qrome Corn in 2022
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Written by Mary Pat Sass, @marypat.sass
Frozen, dry, and yet surprising. The three best words to describe our 2021 crop season. We started off the season very cold with snow after planting and frost after emergence. The crop struggled to come out of the ground. We saw twisted mesocotyls from cold soils and lost some of our stand due to surface crusting. It was not a good start to say the least.
Then, the water turned off for most of our early season and our little corner of Illinois was the only part of the state classified as “severe drought.” It didn’t look promising, even with $5 corn. We finally started seeing rains in early August, right when we needed them to finish the crop. With the rain also came some hail damage on some of our fields. We were starting to feel like we couldn’t catch a break.
This year, our biggest key takeaway from the growing season was that hybrids today can withstand early season stressors better than we thought. Somehow, we were able to harvest a very impressive corn crop with incredible test weights. We were also able to plant and harvest every acre of the farm this year and there were no drowned out areas, which definitely helped our average yields overall.
P0720Q was the first hybrid we planted, and it was in extremely cold conditions. It went through cold soils, frost after emergence, and was one of our best hybrids this year. Standability late season was very good, as it was one of the last hybrids we harvested. We put it up against some of our favorite hybrids from other brands and it did 6 bu better.
P1185Q was the best hybrid we harvested out of everything we planted this year. Although harvestability wasn’t the best on this hybrid, it’s yield made up for that. It was also one of the last hybrids we harvested, and it stood strong.
For us, Qrome has always been a genetic play and hybrid performance is about yield. Since Pioneer released Qrome hybrids, we’ve noticed a significant improvement in product performance on our farm. We’re hopeful for the 2022 growing season and Qrome will definitely be part of our product mix.
Mary Pat Sass is a corn and soybean farmer in Illinois and mother of two. Follow her on Instagram.