In Season Corn Yield Prediction Using Corn Growth Parameters in a Conventional till and No till System.

Predicting corn yield before the end of the growing season is advantageous to farmers as they can have an early idea of their potential profit. The relationship between corn height and yield has been investigated, but such relationship with other corn growth parameters have not been fully explored. The objective of this  experiment was to assess the relationships between corn yield and height, leaf area, leaf number and plant weight. The experiment was conducted on a 10 acre field at Lincoln University’s Freeman farm in Jefferson City, Missouri. The soil of the experimental site was a Waldrom silty clay. Twenty corn and 24 soybean plots were established in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Twelve of the corn plots were tilled (CT) while the others were left untilled (NT). The size of each plot was 40ft x 70ft. Corn was planted in mid-June of 2011 and harvested in November 2011. Plant height at the 6 leaf, 10 leaf, and 12 leaf stages were measured with a meter stick. Leaf area was measured using a leaf area meter and plant weight was measured using a balance. At the end of the growing season ,corn yield was measured for each plot. Results showed that plant height was greater in NT(p=0.0001) as compared to CT plots. However, grain yield was higher in CT(p=0.0355) as compared to NT. Corn yield could not be correlated with leaf area, leaf number and plant weight, but significantly correlated with plant height at 10 leaf stage (p=0.0505, r=-0.41). The correlation was also opposite. The lack of correlation between corn yield and other growth parameters can be attributed to data limitation as we had only 24 sampling points. More studies are underway to better assess this relationship.