This year marks the 51st year of corn hybrid performance evaluation conducted by the Wisconsin Agronomy Department (now the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences), the Wisconsin Crop Improvement Association, and the seed industry. In 1973, the first Wisconsin public corn performance trials were conducted by Elwood Brickbauer. In 1995, the corn silage hybrid evaluation program was initiated. Hybrid selection is a key decision made by farmers and historically is important for delivering new technologies, pest resistance and increased yield and profitability to the farm-gate. The purpose of this program is to provide unbiased performance comparisons of hybrid seed corn for both grain and silage available in Wisconsin.

In 2023, grain and silage performance trials were planted at 14 locations in four production zones: the southern, south central, north central, and northern zones. Both seed companies and university researchers submitted hybrids. Companies with hybrids included in the 2023 trials are listed in Table 1. Specific hybrids and where they were tested are shown in Table 2. A summary of the transgenic traits tested in 2023 is shown in Table 3. A summary of seed treatment performance in 2023 is shown in Table 4. In the back of the report, hybrids previously tested over the past three years are listed in Table 23. At most locations, trials were divided into early and late maturity trials based on the hybrid relative maturities provided by the companies. The specific relative maturities separating early and late trials are listed in the tables.

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