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N.W. Illinois | The year was 1970 and it was Southern Corn Leaf Blight. Corn hybrids that had the Texas T Cytoplasm was susceptible to the blight. Corn hybrids with Texas T Cytoplasm were male sterile. Corn companies did not have to detassel the corn. The cytoplasm weakened the corns natural resistance to Southern Corn Leaf Blight. With a wet, warm, high humidity summer it spelled disaster. Corn was dying in early August from the blight. National yields we reduced over 700 million bushels from the blight. Corn prices went nuts.
None of the Funks G hybrids we planted had this cytoplasm. This included G4444 which was a fantastic hybrid way ahead of it's time. In fact in 1975 Herman Warsaw was the first farmer to grow 300 bushel corn using G4444. We planted a bunch of G4444 without the knowledge of the blight becoming such a big factor. Funks G4444 was easily 50- 100 bushels better then corn with the T Cytoplasm.
I remember DeKalb being hit very hard by the blight and that lead to huge market share loss by DeKalb.
I don't know about Pioneers genetics at that time. We did not plant any. That was to change quickly for us as Pioneer in 1973 introduced 3780 and then 3732 soon after. 3780 and 3732 were both game changers in the seed industry and were soon the most dominate hybrids ever. Funks never had a replacement for G4444. That along with Ciba Geigy mismanagement spelled the end of Funks G hybrids. | |
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Funk's seed corn
