Indeed guys, Herman was very big on treating his root system with kid gloves during the growing season.  

Other than being lighthearted to counter some of the misery posts here lately, the point of this post was that corn's true genetic yield potential hasn't advanced quite as much as some people with short memories would have you believe.   Herman's field had an applied fertilizer analysis that season of 400-228-286, PLUS 20 tons of manure.  How many corn fields in the supposed "best summer anybody can remember" or whatever of 2014 truly have the fertility and intensive management to achieve that caliber of performance?