Corn

"The chart tells a nice, short story of U.S. agriculture — particularly corn, one of its most important crops. For most of the 19th century, American farmers were able to produce more and more food by planting on ever more acreage.* By the late 1800s, however, yields had stagnated. Policymakers got nervous, and the federal government undertook a series of initiatives to boost U.S. food production — irrigation and dam projects to bring farming to desert areas, railroads to transport food to cities.

The major gains, however, began in the 1920s and 1930s, when scientists began breeding hybrid strains of corn with bigger ears that could bunch more closely together in the field. New industrial fertilizers that could satisfy corn's voracious appetite for nitrogen were also developed. Tractors and other mechanized tools appeared. As the chart shows, yields began skyrocketing. Corn could now be grown in areas that were once unthinkable, like parts of the Great Plains. As Paul Roberts explains in The End of Food, "between 1930 and 1940, the number of bushels of corn per acre doubled, and then continued to rise each year."

As the chart above also shows, however, even after the explosion of corn production, the agricultural system is still sensitive to extreme weather events. The drought in 1988 caused corn yields to take a big hit. This year's drought has caused another steep drop.(2012)

So far, these lurches haven't been a fatal problem. For the past half century, droughts in the United States have actually been relatively short and infrequent, thanks to increased rainfall driven by natural ocean cycles. Globally, meanwhile, agricultural yields have been growing at a stable rate. Technology has helped farmers overcome nature. "

Hybridization of corn is still one of my favorite blogs I've ever written.  That population curve amazes me every time I click on it.  Adapting those technologies enabled my family to buy the tenant farm they farmed and got me started on my own farm here, finally, ten years ago.

Reid's Yellow Dent played a big role in this technology.  It takes two really good, dissimilar inbreds to make a great F1 hybrid.  That's only the start of this revolution. 

Ohio enjoyed a very good crop of soybeans this year at 49 bushels per acre, according to my USDA report yesterday.  We were one of the best corn yields in the nation at 174.  Still, US production tops out around 160 bu and beans continue to stay in the 40's.  We raised those kinds of yields in the 70's here.

Have we really advanced that far in 40 years?

This guy doesn't think so.

What do you think?

Ed Winkle