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 2/21/2023

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Put to the Test: 2022 Yield Contest Winners Prove Pioneer® Brand Corn Products Perform in the Field

Hear what these top finishers in the National Corn Growers Association National Corn Yield Contest are doing to reach their yield goals.

Access and download individual sound bites on the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) newsroom or contact Larissa Capriotti at larissa.carpriotti@corteva.com.

NOTE TO MEDIA: This audio news release features audio soundbites from corn farmers representing several different regions of the country. It is set up for you to select the sound bites that are most relevant to your listeners and/or readers.

Announcer Lead-In Copy: Farmers measure success in various ways. For many, it is defined, at least in part, by reaching their bushels-per-acre goal at the end of the season. Farmers across the nation who planted Pioneer® brand corn products have seen the field-proven performance with winning results in the 2022 annual National Corn Growers Association yield contest. Several of this year’s winning growers shared tips on what they look for in the hybrids they plant, how they manage their crops, and where they go for advice and information to reach these high-yielding totals. Representing several geographies across the United States, these farmers experienced highs and lows through the season and talked about how they continue to push forward.

Judd O’Connor, President, North America Business for Corteva Agriscience, congratulated the winners.

Audio: Judd_O’Connor_Soundbite_1.mp3 (00:21)
"Congratulations to all the winning farmers in the 2022 yield contest. Your results reflect the incredible work that top farmers can do with the right product and sound management practices. With seven national and 200 state yield winners, Pioneer will continue working to provide farmers with the corn products they need to be successful on their farms."

Announcer Voiceover Copy: In general, the 2022 growing season was a down year for corn yields with the USDA estimating 4 bushels per acre less than 2021.

Audio: Judd_O’Connor_Soundbite_2.mp3 (00:36)
"Every farmer faces challenges during the season, and these yield contest winners are no different. Our goal at Pioneer is to provide corn products that help farmers weather those tough conditions and still produce winning results at harvest. For the past five years, Pioneer brand products have had more yield contest entries exceeding 300 bushels per acre than any other seed brand."

"And our latest classes have been tested intensely in local fields over several years to maximize yield potential. Field-proven results are clear with 40 states having first- or second-place yield winners with Pioneer brand corn."

Announcer Note - Transition to select winning farmer soundbites from the 2022 National Corn Yield Contest.

National and State Corn Yield Contest Winners

National Corn Yield Contest winner Dale Hadden, Jacksonville, Illinois:
- 2nd place strip, minimum, mulch, ridge-till non-irrigated class, 335.7916 bu/A.

Announcer Voiceover: Fifth-generation farmer, Dale Hadden [HAD-den], operates a grain and livestock farm in west-central Illinois with his family and has been a Pioneer dealer since 1987. Hadden [HAD-den] placed second nationally in the strip-till non-irrigated class. From the beginning, Hadden [HAD-den] learned from his father the importance of managing the soil.

Audio: Dale_Hadden_Soundbite 1.mp3 (00:39)
"My dad was a very big instigator in using reduced residue, tillage methods. And then he constructed a lot of terraces and tile and was very, very conscientious about soil erosion. You know, back in the early seventies...he was kind of against the grain."

"We farm farms that are not exactly flat, so we have to manage our soils."

"You try and do better than you're capable of doing to make it a better place for the next generation that's going to come along."

Announcer Voiceover: Hadden [HAD-den] works closely with his Pioneer agronomist to evaluate and choose the right hybrids for his acres.

Audio: Dale_Hadden_Soundbite_2.mp3 (00:31)
"I believe in being engaged in the process so that there are things that I might learn in the contest field that would work across all our acres. The reason that I selected the 1136AM is when talking with our agronomist, we talked about the fact that this hybrid has, we call it in this area, racehorse characteristics, where Mother Nature gives you the right cards, and you can really bring some top-end bushels out of it."

Announcer Voiceover: Always looking for ways to build on last year’s program, Hadden [HAD-den] does testing on a few acres before incorporating anything new farmwide. He shares that advice with others looking to add to their yield.

Audio: Dale_Hadden_Soundbite_3.mp3 (00:40)
"I would encourage them to break out a 40 or an 80 and do some different methods of either nitrogen application or if they're not using sulfur, bring that into their rotation. I think in our part of the world up here, we've seen a huge bump from using ammonium thiosulfate in our program. It is real…both corn and soybeans are really responding to that from a yield level. And I just think that if you're not using that type of program, at least in our part of the world, you need to be trying that on a few acres just to see what kind of bump you get."

Announcer Voiceover: Hadden [HAD-den] also says not to rush into the season but to make sure the timing is right for your fields.

Audio: Dale_Hadden_Soundbite 4.mp3 (00:15)
"So, you have to be very, very patient. And I guess that's one of the things I've learned is because my neighbors are running doesn't mean I need to be out there if it's not right, and I'd rather wait and do it right and run 24 hours a day than I would be to start a day too early."

Announcer Note - Transition to additional grower sound bites or CLOSING AUDIO.

State Corn Yield Contest winner Jake Drozd, Allegan, Michigan:
- 1st place conventional irrigated class, 296.6085 bu/A.

Announcer Voiceover: One of those state winners is Michigan farmer Jake Drozd [DROZ-dee], who earned first place in the conventional irrigated class. Drozd [DROZ-dee] farms corn, soybeans and grain sorghum with his dad and brother. When determining which hybrids to plant, Drozd [DROZ-dee] says yield is top of mind.

Audio: Jake_Drozd_Soundbite_1.mp3 (00:17)
"We pick corn that is the highest yielding because in the end: yield is always king."

"We're just looking for good, solid high-yielding hybrids."

"This past year, we felt like we had the planters tuned in really well, and we felt, we had, the stands that came up were amazing."

Announcer Voiceover: Pioneer tests potential new hybrids locally to understand how they will perform in a variety of conditions. Drozd [DROZ-dee] also continues to test different inputs and practices to see what will help raise his yield average.

Audio: Jake_Drozd_Soundbite_2.mp3 (00:23)
"Tissue sampling's been one thing. You know, looking at different ratios, different nutrients, you know, put a little boron out here during pollination or, you know, sidedress maybe a little less N and split that nitrogen up."

"Soil sampling, you know, instead of every four or five years, maybe sample every one to two years, you know, that's just stuff that we've learned over the past 15, 20 years."

Announcer Voiceover: In addition to testing, Drozd [DROZ-dee] networks with other farmers, makes sure his planter is set correctly, and scouts fields daily.

Audio: Jake_Drozd_Soundbite_3.mp3 (00:24)
"Your planter should be ready to go at planting. Don't be working on your planter in the field. Have it ready."

"The planter’s your first chance to make everything right."

"We go scout. I mean I scout that field every day."

"I play a little golf, but I don't play a lot of sports. So, kind of our sport is to go out there and walk the corn, you know, it's kind of fun. So, but it's the same with all of our corn, you know, we just, we scout relentlessly."

Announcer Note - Transition to additional grower sound bites or CLOSING AUDIO.

National Corn Yield Contest winner Dalton Peterson, Bertrand, Nebraska:
- 1st place conventional irrigated class, 336.7485 bu/A.

Announcer Voiceover: One of this year’s national first place winners is Dalton Peterson from Bertrand, Nebraska. He started farming with his brother in 2013, and then in 2021 the two brothers partnered with their dad. They carefully select the hybrids that will perform the best on each field.

Audio: Dalton_Peterson_Soundbite_1.mp3 (00:23)
"We evaluate each field each winter and, we go through and look at all the soil samples."

"With our Pioneer agronomists and Pioneer dealer, we collaborate, and we discuss and go through every single field and look at each field on how it yielded and performed and everything. And then go through each hybrid also. And then we start placing the hybrids with the field."

Announcer Voiceover: The trio then will reevaluate a couple weeks later to make sure they like the plan they’ve made. And before rolling the planters out in the spring, they’ll check the hybrid and field pairings one final time.

Audio: Dalton_Peterson_Soundbite_2.mp3 (00:32)
"Placement is key. It makes a big difference on different hybrids. And so kind of the hybrids that we start with, with the contest, we always look for kind of higher yielding ones, and we kind of place them on the better farms and look at that. And then we kind of have an idea how they do and with the different yield and the different populations, how they react and all that. And then we kind of introduce them to the rest of the farm after that, we try them out kind of on our contest field."

Announcer Voiceover: They have seen success by applying what they learn from the yield contest acres throughout the rest of the farm.

Audio: Dalton_Peterson_Soundbite_3.mp3 (39:00)
"We kind of base things off of the contest field. We got few, we see few fields that we know that are going to always be pretty good. So, we always try to put the best hybrid out there and watch them pretty close. We always do leaf samples throughout the year. And then sometimes on the contest field we'll do extra leaf samples just to check the, evaluate where we're at on what nutrients we're needing or what nutrients we're missing and everything."

"The hard work always pays off. It seems like if you go the extra mile it will benefit yourself, you know, make sure everything is right and it'll pay off in the end."

Announcer Note - Transition to additional grower sound bites or CLOSING AUDIO.

State Corn Yield Contest winner David Waldner, Clark, South Dakota:
- 1st place conventional non-irrigated class, 308.9586 bu/A.

Announcer Voiceover: For Clark, South Dakota farmer David Waldner, farming has always been a part of his life. After seeing good results over several years, his Pioneer dealer encouraged him to enter the yield contest.

Audio: David_Waldner_Soundbite_1.mp3 (00:16)
"I've been planting them the last four years and they've been doing good."

"I guess I didn't expect to come to that number, but I kind of figured they would be good. But I guess they were better than I did, better than I thought they would be."

Announcer Voiceover: The season for Waldner wasn’t met without challenges, mainly the lack of rain, but overall, he had a good year.

Audio: David_Waldner_Soundbite_2.mp3 (00:24)
"Well, there were some challenges. We needed some rain. Our rain got shut off at the end of July, and if we would've had more rain, it would've probably done even better."

"For the year we had, we had a good corn, we had a crop … we had a nice crop. Beans could have used some more rain, but other than that we had a very, very good year."

Announcer Voiceover: Except for a bit more fertilizer, Waldner says his contest acres and the rest of his farm are managed the same. He usually splits his fertilizer application and says that contributes to his success.

Audio: David_Waldner_Soundbite_3.mp3 (00:44)
'We put a little bit more fertilizer on them, but other than that it was managed the same as the rest of our farm was. We put our fertilizer on there. We came back, and we sidedressed them at V5, V6, and we put fungicide on them and just let them grow and hope for the best."

"Sidedressing is a good thing. The way I've seen it. We put our fertilizer and our nitrogen down with our corn planter with two by two, and then we come back and put the rest on with sidedressing. And it seems like that's been a good deal for us."

Announcer Voiceover: Growers from 31 states achieved yield results exceeding 300 bushels per acre with Pioneer brand corn products, highlighting the consistent performance from Pioneer products across multiple environments.

For more complete results from this year’s yield contest, go to pioneer.com/NCGA.

About Pioneer
Pioneer, the flagship seed brand of Corteva Agriscience, is the world’s leading developer and supplier of advanced plant genetics, providing high-quality seeds to farmers in more than 90 countries. Pioneer provides agronomic support and services to help increase farmer productivity and profitability and strives to develop sustainable agricultural systems for people everywhere.

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About Corteva Agriscience
Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry-leading innovations, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and a technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to maximizing productivity for farmers, while working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.

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Media Contact:
Larissa Capriotti
515-805-4854
Larissa.Capriotti@corteva.com

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