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SW “Ohia” | Hello All,
Reading through the high yielding corn thread below got me thinking about Herman Warsaw's record corn yields.
I've always wondered about his record setting corn variety.
FS854
From what I've read, (old magazines and newspaper searches) this variety was outdated and not popular at all, when Warsaw was setting his records. FS only sold a couple hundred bags per year. Stalks grew very tall with poor standability, and it was slow to dry down. Warsaw stated he preferred it because it could handle high populations (34,000 to 37,000) without producing barren stalks.
Just seems like an odd variety to use for yield contests. But obviously it performed.
Anybody have anymore background? Did this seed ever end up in the lineage of a modern variety?
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Northern Nebraska | The inbred germplasm almost certainly remains somewhere. I suppose growmark might tell you if any of the genetics exist in any hybrids they offer today.
The hybrid exhibited a ridiculously long stay green. |
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South Central Illinois | Population is the secret to record yields.
Genetics give us higher population.
Fertilizer, planters, weed control; give us large ears.
The yield potential per plant has not changed since 1930. |
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Northern Nebraska | Herman grew 370 bushel corn 33 years ago with a 37,000 population. There are probably folks on this site that plant that. I don't think the path to higher yields will be paying for more seed. |
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SW Ontario | Fred Below begs to differ... |
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central, Il. | Hilltop Husker - 3/16/2018 20:04
I don't think the path to higher yields will be paying for more seed.
You are exactly right. And 33 years ago, people complained about the cost of seed then.
I remember when Herman did this. He WORKED at it. And in several articles I read at that time, Herman stated that it was not economically feasible. |
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Central Ohio | Please elaborate. |
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| Herman had some of the best soil in the world. That's a huge advantage. And yes, he said it was not economically feasible. I think he used a fair bit of feedlot manure, cultivated, lots of blasphemy by today's standards. FS sold a lot of seed around there at the time but I remember Herman saying that it had very poor stalk quality. Bad windstorm and it would lodge badly.
I would assume somewhere, some form of that strain exists but where and in what number......no idea.
Edited by Hereford Guy 3/17/2018 01:31
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West Central IA | Was he the guy that did deep chiseling and went a little deeper every year? And after he was gone a young guy farms his prize field and no tills it and raises 150 instead of 300? I am getting old and can't remember stuff from that long ago. |
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sw MN | His soil was a long ways from the best.
It is currently woods.
He built the soil up and paid great attention to detail. |
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| Woods? Do you know the details on that seems crazy. |
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| Central, iL, far from the best? Could be wrong, but would highly doubt they let it grow up in woods, in McLean county, IL. Unless it got developed.
Edited by mac4440 3/17/2018 13:22
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WC MN | I guess Herman and I both agree to plant when conditions and the Calender say go.....
not when seed peddlers who sell overpriced crap seed say stop due to it being too cold. |
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| jd7520 - 3/16/2018 19:08
Was he the guy that did deep chiseling and went a little deeper every year? And after he was gone a young guy farms his prize field and no tills it and raises 150 instead of 300? I am getting old and can't remember stuff from that long ago.
Herman did deep chisel, not sure if he went a little deeper every year or not. He died in the late 80's I think. I don't know who farms it now. McLean county is not really an area I would be doing much if any no-till, not even on beans. |
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| JDPlowboy - 3/16/2018 19:11
His soil was a long ways from the best.
It is currently woods.
He built the soil up and paid great attention to detail.
I would doubt it is in woods unless Bloomington has swallowed his ground and I don't think it has. Now, maybe he left it to the Nature Conservancy or some other deal and they put it in woods or some crazy stuff but as to his soil being far from the best, you are sorely mistaken. Yes, it was a badly mismanaged farm when he bought it in the 1940's and he corrected those issues. Take it from someone born in McLean county with deep ties to it. McLean has very, very little poor ground. It is always one of the top three or so counties for corn yields in Illinois. Other than a few isolated areas like Funk's Grove, a few patches west of town on my old neighborhood, or something under DNR control like Moraine View State Park, it is almost exclusively cleared and row cropped land. |
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South Central Illinois | IIRC it was in a low area just North of Saybrook IL.
Is that correct? |
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Central Texas | It amazes me that there is never a straight answer as to what happened to Warsaw's land. If anything like that had ever happened around here, I guarantee you that everyone within a 25 mile radius could tell you exactly who farmed the place every year after that occurred. This topic has come up several times here on Ag Talk and every time it's the same thing, it's grown up in trees, or somebody took it over and it doesn't yield anything like it did. Is it some secret location that only 2 or 3 people in the whole world know about? It just seems preposterous that no one can answer with any certainty what has happened to Herman Warsaw's farm that should be one of the best known farms in the USA. |
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SC Wisconsin | I read this thread and got interested enough to do some reading... I found this online. I can't vouch for it's accuracy, but interesting stuff.
"Herman lived at Saybrook, Ill. I visited his farm a couple times. He was as wonderful and gracious a person as has ever graced this earth. There are a few details about his 300+ bu, yields yuou might be interested in.
He used a FS variety that had the capability to convert almost all of it's stalk reserves into grain, consequently he would harvest when corn was28 to 30 % moisture or he would have to pick the stuff up off the ground. FS would breed up a hundred bags or so of this variety every couple years for guys like Herman.
Herman and his brother-in-law had a feed lot that they bedded with corn cobs they got from local corn shellers. Every year 10- 15 tons per acre of these manure and urine soaked corn cobs would go on each acre of his "test" plot. The cobs would slowly break down providing late season nutrients.
Herman claimed he chiseled 18" deep. I don't know how he did that with an old Graham-Holme chisel plow with 24" of clearance from frame to chisel tip.
After Herman retired, U of Ill set up some plots on his farm for several years trying to duplicate his yields. With out his variety and the corn cobs they were never able to come with in 50 bu. of Hermans yields.
One of Herman's claims for the extraordinary yields was his long term fertility program which gave him soil test results of 250-300# per acre of P and 900-1000 # per acre of K. I don't doubt these levels,but I don't think they were necessary for his yields. They served a purpose however, in that more of the corn belt became aware of the need for adaquate levels of these nutrients to produce good economic yields. Dr. Harold Reetz of the Potash and Phosphate Institute, supported by potash and phosphate miners, helped Herman get around to corn grower meetings and seed corn meetings all over the mid-west to tell about his outstanding P and K soiltest levels and how they made for the record setting yields.
Herman was a modest man who made history. Like all of us, there was much more to him than the legend reveled." |
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Cen IL | Just google, google maps, enter 1000 N and 4100 east, Mclean county, Illinois. The field on the northwest corner of that junction was where some of his plots were. As can clearly be seen, it is tillable farmland. He raised hogs at that farmstead. PI index would be about 115 to 125 without looking it up.
Just looked it up. PI is 125. A Warsaw is still listed as owner.
Edited by jdg 3/19/2018 23:39
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Central Texas | Thank you for the information. I wondered what happened to his farm and just kept hearing conflicting reports. |
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What happened to Herman Warsaw's favorite corn seed variety?
