Mark Jeschke, agronomy research manager at Pioneer, oversaw an extensive twin-row project last year that included 31 locations across the Corn Belt. When all the analysis was complete, on average they did not see anything that suggests a broad advantage of twin rows over 30-in. rows.

“We tried to look at whether any particular environments or hybrids showed a differentiation between the two (twins vs. 30s), but we really didn’t see any,” Jeschke reports. “I wasn’t real surprised, though, because we’ve looked at narrow rows before and haven’t seen a consistent yield benefit across the central Corn Belt.” 

There might be more yield advantages in northern states based on other narrow-row research, Jeschke reports, but testing in those states was limited in last year’s study. 

 

January 2011