They used to say that more seed corn was spilled in Iowa than got planted in southeast Kansas.

Of course, they used to say that corn wouldn’t work in this part of the world.

Southeast Kansas may never be a threat to take over the title of tall corn country but it is pretty clear that the crop’s presence—and its importance—have grown dramatically in recent years.

Back in the early ‘70s, southeast Kansas corn growers were planting roughly 100,000 to 150,000 acres per year. Those acres took a steep drop in 1975 and stayed well under 100,000 acres for the most part for the next 25 years, hovering around 50,000 acres throughout the ‘80s.

In the ‘90s, though, corn acres started coming back and these days, corn has blown right past 100,000 acres, past 200,000 acres and has exceeded 300,000 acres in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

“There has been a dramatic increase in corn acres in southeast Kansas,” observes Kansas State University Agronomist Jim Long. “I think there are a number of factors involved but the bottom line is that today’s hybrids and today’s practices fit our southeast Kansas weather better than any other crop.”

Long, who runs the crop variety performance tests at the Southeast Agricultural Research Center at Parsons, says innovative farmers who began experimenting with early planted short season hybrids got the ball rolling—and fine-tuned practices with better and better hybrids kept it going.

“There’s no doubt that shorter season hybrids planted early has been the key to corn success in southeast Kansas,” he asserts. “That has enabled us to produce more consistent yields because we’re able to get silking done by the third week of June, roasting ears by the Fourth of July and denting by mid-July. That allows us to beat a lot of the effects of hot, dry weather.”

The numbers clearly show the system is working. From 1970 to 1990, average yields for the Southeast Kansas Crop Reporting District broke over the 80-bushel mark only a couple of times and were much more typically well below that level.

In 1997, though, the area’s average yield went over 100 bushels per acre and it has exceeded the century mark in four of the past eight years:

•2000—111 bu./acre

•2001—95 bu./acre

•2002—93 bu./acre

•2003—84 bu./acre

•2004—117 bu./acre