Characterization of Cob Structural Integrity, Imagery Analysis, and Biochemical Composition of Corn Hybrids.

Corn cob structural integrity and strength are affected by the presence of biochemical composition and fungal ear rots. In the present study, we described a high-throughput method to measure corn cobs physical strength with a compression instrument and its relationship with the chemical composition of corn cobs.The axial and radial compression strengths were measured with a universal tensile tester with cobs produced at 2, 4, and 6 cm in length and one level of force. This methodology for investigating structural integrity and strength of corn cobs was evaluated. Imagery consisted of four cob sections cut at 0.635 cm and scanned using a HD document scanner and analyzed with imaging software. Correlation between structural integrity of the cobs, cob imagery and chemical composition were evaluated on 20 corn hybrids grown across three different environments of Texas. The results will be presented on the best combination of structural, wet chemistry, and imagery analysis methods that provide an accurate high-throughput method to predict cob structural integrity and biochemical composition.