There's more than meets the eye in a field of growing corn. One way to look behind the scene is to consider the cornfield as a complex and constantly changing community.
It is a manufacturing community with many thousands of highly organized and highly efficient "factories" per hectare or acre. Basically, the raw materials for the factories (plants) are water and mineral nutrients from the soil and carbon dioxide and oxygen from the atmosphere.
The internal machinery that transforms these raw materials into useful products (yield) is powered by sunlight. The products, called dry matter, consist of different combinations of carbohydrates, proteins, oils, and the mineral nutrients. Differences in growth and yield between hybrids are a result of differences in factory internal machinery.
The overall concept of corn production is that the raw materials and sunlight (power), combine with the internal machinery of the hybrid being grown to yield dry matter. This means that growth and yield of a corn plant are functions of the plant's genetic potential to react to the environmental conditions under which the plant is grown.
Although nature provides the major portion of the environmental influence on corn growth and yield, a corn producer can manipulate the environment with proven managerial practices. Such operations include tillage and fertilization of the soil, irrigation, weed and insect control, and many other practices.
Combinations of these practices vary over different production situations and management levels.
Regardless of the specific situation. however, a producer needs to understand corn growth and development. A producer who understands the corn plant can use production practices more efficiently to obtain higher yields and profit.
This publication is designed to aid those involved in corn production to more fully understand how the corn plant develops. The content is both basic and applied. The basic information explains corn growth and development through one life cycle. Management Guides pinpoint practices needed for optimum plant growth and production.