University studies and other independent research in 2006 indicated that YieldGard Plus and YieldGard Rootworm traits from Monsanto Company outperformed corn products containing the competing Herculex RW and Herculex XTRA traits, according to Monsanto.

The company says the findings are based on 149 comparisons at trial locations conducted by 14 third-party sources in 7 states. The findings show:

• YieldGard RW or YieldGard Plus products achieved an overall 22.8 bushel-per-acre yield advantage, outyielding Herculex products 85.9 percent the time.
• In third-party system trials, germplasm with YieldGard Rootworm or YieldGard Plus achieved a 23.6 bushel-per-acre yield advantage over Herculex RW and Herculex XTRA product systems when both systems utilized a conventional herbicide program.
• When the Monsanto products were also stacked with Roundup Ready Corn 2 and protected with Roundup herbicides for broad-spectrum weed control, the triple-stack yield advantage increased to 28.1 bushels per acre over the Pioneer Herculex RW and XTRA systems with a conventional herbicide.

Participants in the trials included the University of Nebraska, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, the University of Minnesota, Purdue University, Ohio State University, the University of Illinois, Soy Capital Ag Services, Farmer’s Independent Research of Seed Technologies, Busey Bank and JP Morgan.

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