Dale Hadden Supervisors Aaron Dufelmeier County Extension Agent University of Illinois Todd F. Behrends Field Man Sangamon Valley FBFM Meghan Curless Crop/Hort Educator University of Illinois DALE HADDEN HADDEN FARMS Jacksonville, Ill. 280.7451 BU/A Pioneer 31N28 Harvest Pop.: 33,000 Harvester: JD 9660 Sometimes you have to be a little patient. Dale Hadden last captured a first place in this category in 1996. This year he’s back with a yield of nearly 281 bu. per acre, marking an all-time personal best. “I’ve had 250 bushels several times,” he says. “But this was something else.” Hadden began prepping his contest field immediately after soybean harvest the previous fall. He started by disking in liquid fertilizer (100 units of phosphorus and 120 units of potash). He followed with 200 units of anhydrous in November. At the same time, Hadden coupled Princep with a reduced rate of Basis to hold back winter annuals. “When we go in with the planter in the spring, we don’t want to see a single weed growing out there,” he says. Hadden planted April 10 at a population of 34,000 seeds per acre. “We’ve been in the contest since 1987, and we think that’s the single biggest factor in having a competitive entry,” he says. “If you don’t have plants out there to start with, you’re not going to make a good yield.” Stand uniformity goes hand in hand with a high planting population in Hadden’s book. “We hold our planting speed to less than 5 miles per hour to ensure good spacing,” he notes. “Our goal is to have a seed every 4" to 5" with no doubles.” When the corn was about 6" high, Hadden treated for weeds using Steadfast, Callisto and atrazine over the top. When the corn reached knee-high stage, he scouted every seven to ten days. “We were really fortunate with weather,” he says. “We didn’t see much in the way of insect infestations, and we didn’t have any problems with late weed flushes.” Rains during the early growing season were “ample and timely.” In late August, though, things turned dry. “The fact that it was cooler than normal helped,” he says. “We didn’t have many days where the temperatures got much above 80, so the corn never really got stressed. You have to do a lot of little things right to get a high yield. But it doesn’t hurt to be a little lucky with the weather too.”
	Supervisors Gene Flannigan Self-Employed Agronomist Christopher Gunter Horticulture Specialist Purdue University Daniel S. Egel Extension Plant Pathologist Purdue University SAM WILLIAMS Oaktown, Ind. 273.4955 BU/A Pioneer 33M54 Harvest Pop.: 35,000 Harvester: JD 7720 Titan II Talk about a quick study. In just his second year in the contest, Sam Williams cracked the national winners circle with a yield topping 273 bu. per acre. Williams and his son/partner, Craig, planted the contest entry April 14 – a little on the early side. “It was still a little cool, and we were concerned that maybe we hadn’t given the ground enough of a chance to warm up,” Williams says. “Right after that, we had nearly perfect weather.” Williams was especially pleased with his hybrid. “We thought about going with a fuller-season variety,” he says. “But this one really did well with the kind of weather we had.” Planting population for the crop was 35,000 seeds per acre. On their non-contest ground, they typically plant 29,000 to 30,000 seeds per acre. “But we had been watching the contest for the last couple of years and thought we’d need to make at least 250 bu. to be competitive,” he says. “We figured that would take more ears and more plants per acre. If we had known that the weather was going to be as good as it was, we probably would have planted the whole farm this way.”		Supervisors Jeff Gibson Ag Loan Officer Wells Fargo Bank Matthew Gibson NCGA Representative Ind. Corn Growers Assn. Todd Ames Soil Conservationist NRCS ROBERT LITTLE Hebron, Ind. 270.7810 BU/A Pioneer 33N09 Harvest Pop.: 38,000 Harvester: Case IH 2366 You have to envy Robert Little. Start with the fact that he, wife Kathy and father Verle have made 10 trips to the yield contest winners circle. As impressive as that is, the real reason to envy Little is that he truly enjoys what he does for a living. “I have a passion for corn,” he says. “I love farming. I like watching corn grow, and I enjoy figuring out ways to do a little better every year. The contest is great because it lets me try things on a small scale that may work on the rest of the farm.” Good weather this year added to Little’s enjoyment. “It was about as good a season as I can remember,” he says. “At planting time, it was warm and dry. The timing of the rains was just about perfect throughout the season, and we didn’t have a lot of hot days in July and August to stress the crop.” Little already looks ahead to next year’s contest. “We want to try a few new varieties, and we might back off a little on planting population.” It was 38,300 seeds per acre this year.