Yield challenge winners see corn yields of more than 310 bushels per acre

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

by MATT MCINTOSH

Out of a record 453 growers, DuPont Pioneer’s Ontario Corn Yield Challenge had 11 winners for the 2013 growing season.

Some of the winners saw yields that came near or exceeded 300 bushels per acre.

“It was really nice to win this year, but you have to put in a little extra for those kinds of results,” says Jim Soetemans, a winning participant from Watford in Lambton County who produced 310.4 bushels per acre. “I won a couple years ago too . . . this past year I added a little extra fertilizer to the area I was growing for the contest.”

Soetemans had the second highest yield, with first place going to Randy Vandeheede, a Simcoe area farmer who produced 327.1 bushels per acre with a different hybrid.

According to DuPont Pioneer’s January 10 press release, all the winners “represent different maturities across Ontario,” which means there can be no overall provincial winner.

The winners were announced at an awards event held on January 9. As a prize, all received a trip for two to this year’s Commodity Classic in San Antonio, Texas.

Debbie Lambing, a representative of  DuPont Pioneer’s Chatham facility, says that farmers need to have at least 1.25 acres and buy a minimum of 20 units of Pioneer brand corn in order to enter the annual contest.

“Other than that all you need to do is have a DuPont representative present when weighing your crop,” she says. BF