Betting The Farm On Racehorse Hybrids. (6076)

Corn seed agronomists often talk about "racehorse hybrids" and suggest growers plant these hybrids on their best producing soils. They imply that racehorse hybrids yield higher than other hybrids in high yielding environments. We questioned whether racehorse hybrids exist among commercially available corn hybrids. If so, what is their yield advantage in high yielding environments and how do they perform in low yielding environments? A total of 13,174 corn hybrids grown at three or more locations from 1,904 experiments conducted by several Midwest university corn performance trial programs were evaluated to determine yield response over environments. The concept of "racehorse" and "stable" hybrids will be presented and discussed relative to a grower's management decision of choosing hybrids for their farm. Only 3-4% of the hybrids tested could be classified as racehorse hybrids.