Like most agronomic researchers, Fred Below has spent his career chasing down the mix of in-field factors that create 300-bushel corn yields. In his work running the University of Illinois Crop Physiology Laboratory Team, he’s continued to confirm the wide-held belief that the greatest success comes in the form of creating the best conditions for growth rather than a single practice that makes all the difference

Back in 1985, Below’s first year as a professor, Herman Warsaw produced his record-setting 370 bushels per acre in Saybrook, Ill. Below, who had research plots on Warsaw’s farm, personally oversaw some 313-bushel yields. He’s been obsessed with getting to the bottom of what it takes to produce high yields consistently ever since.

“I didn't end up seeing 300 bushels again for 30 years,” Below says. “That's like a whole career — a whole mortgage. But all of a sudden, we start growing 300 bushels again. And where did we see it? It showed up in our management hybrid evaluation trials. For the last 9 years, we have screened commercial hybrids for their response to agronomic management.” 

This was the genesis of Below’s Seven Wonders of The Corn Yield World approach; identifying and understanding the 7 primary factors that contribute to a strong corn yield. He developed his list in 2008 (in order of importance): weather, fertility, hybrid, plant population, crop rotation, tillage/no-tillage, and biologicals. Working with generation after generation of grad students with the Crop Physiology Lab Team on 3 separate sites in…