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This, the first post of this thread, will be edited from time to time. Please check here to see if anything has changed. I may re-post it when it gets pushed far enough down the page. If I do repost it, I'll probably delete all the information with this post, and post a link to the newer post. Mods feel free to edit it on my behalf if I don't get to it soon enough. I'm preparing for a wedding and such.

There appears to be a large amount of interest in Nebraska's Corn and Soybean list project. This thread is designed to:

1. Take a little bit of the load off of Nebraska's shoulders (thanks again Nebraska for all your hard work)

3. Explain a little bit about what you can do with the excel spreadsheet (Nebraska or others, if you give a better explanation for me, I can edit this post to reflect your explanation).

This is simply a collection of relevant quotes from other threads that may be added to over time.

mhagny - 12/21/2008 05:22 Ed: There aren't any differences in insertion events -- those only happen once. The corn seed that is sold by the various companies is provided through only a couple 'wholesaler'/intermediary companies that either grow it themselves or contract with farmers to grow it, and it is identical genetically if it is the same hybrid (although there is sometimes the practice of 'sister-lining'). However, there are different seed lots with different degrees of seed vigor (and seed sizes), and the various retailers bid to acquire whatever lots they want. Some retailers are very stringent about cold germ and AA scores, while others buy whatever is cheap. For genetically identical hybrids, the yield differences in plots is due to: A) experimental error, which includes variations in soils, micro-climate, etc., B) seed vigor, C) seed treatments, which may cause yield drag or yield boosts, and D) seed size/shape, which may result in skips, doubles, or other population and spacing effects.

GlenravenFarms - 12/21/2008 13:00 As a general rule of thumb, if you want to plant more than just one company's corn (and honestly, you should), only buy from one company in each of the 'Big Four' holdings. AKA, one Syngenta company, one Monsanto company, one AgReliant company, and Pioneer. You're practically assured of unique hybrids that way. If you buy from three different Monsanto companies, as one of my customers did last year, you may very well end up planting the same hybrid in a different bag. Not good. Be a little bit wary of some independents, as a lot of them are buying genetics from one of the bigger companys. Croplan, for example, buys almost all their genetics from Monsanto...that's fine as they seem to pick some decent products, but I don't know that I'd be comfortably buying both Croplan and Krueger, for example.

Mike SE IL - 12/21/2008 14:23

The problem with a list like this is illustrated best by the company I buy from. They have over 75 varieties listed each with a unique variety number. 5616 VT3, CBRR, CBRWRR, CL, Waxy, and conventional are all different varieties. But all are 5616. There are probably more similarities in varieties than the list shows.

Plus, it can depend which parent is male and female ! I remember talking with an agronomist with a now defunct company about a hybrid we will call AB, AB was short. But if it was grown as BA (switch the parents "sex") it was tall. Did not even look like the same corn but legally it was identical.

Identical varieties may yield substantially differently in the farmer's field depending upon production practices, grading, handling, etc. Identical genetics doesn't mean identical performance.

This is what the spreadsheet will look like if you open it in the newest version of Excel. Other versions will be similar.

If you simply want to view the sheet without downloading it, go here (thanks again Clay). If that doesn't work, or you want to have a copy on your hard drive so you can access it when you don't have internet access, read on.

Below you will see what to do next courtesy of Clay-All-Over's picture tutorial on another post (Clay, if you would rather I don't do this, I can take it down. I also changed two of your pictures to jpg because I'm not very familiar with png compatibility):

Don also compressed the Excel file and posted it in a thread down below. I took the liberty of adding that compressed file to the bottom of this post so that all the options were on one page. If you would rather I don't use your compressed file Don, I can remove it from this post. If you're ok with it though, thanks. If you want to download Don's zipped version instead, look at the bottom of this post to click on the link as shown in the picture tutorial below.

Some browsers will automatically download it to the desktop (or wherever you have specified). If you haven't specified where to automatically download it, and it asks you where as seen below, I'd save it to the desktop so you can easily find it later. If you know enough to disagree with me, then I agree with you but this tutorial isn't for you either. This is just for the basics.

Once you've saved it to your desktop, close all your windows so you can see it. It should be a folder icon with a little zipper on it as shown below and entitled Identical.zip. Double click on it. Assuming you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, it will open for you automatically. If it doesn't open automatically and computers aren't your forte, honestly I'd recommend using one of the other two methods shown above.

There are several easy ways to view this file. The first and easiest method is if you already have Microsoft Excel. Just double click and you can see it.

The second method will take some more time, especially if you have a slow computer. If it's worth it to you to save time, you could go to Newegg or something similar and buy Microsoft Office. I think the 2007 Student and Home edition is less than $150 bucks (although I haven't checked recently).

Anyways, the second method (which is free) is to go to the Open Office website and download the newest version of Open Office. I think it's several hundred megabytes so if you have dialup, you're looking at days worth of downloading. If you've got high speed internet, maybe a couple of hours worth of downloading or less if you've got good high speed.

Click here to start the download. Make sure you save it to a location that you can find after the download is complete. After it's complete, double click on the file you downloaded from OpenOffice.org so that you can start the installation process. After the program has installed, then you should be able to open the file that Nebraska created.

The third method is also free but it does not give you the same functionality for the future that Open Office does. However, if you want free and you want a download that will take 1/2 to 1/3 the time, click here instead to get the Excel Viewer for free from Microsoft. Click the little download button on the left side towards the top to start downloading the viewer.

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