Farmprogress

The Iowa Master Farmer program is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2026. Henry A. Wallace founded the program in 1926 to honor “Good Farming, Clear Thinking, Right Living.” That was the motto printed on the cover of his family’s magazine, Wallaces Farmer.

In addition to managing their farming operation, Master Farmers focus on pursuing a successful home and family life and being involved in their community. Many are active in commodity and farm organizations. Candidates for the award care for the land and its resources to help feed and fuel a hungry world.

The year 1926 was busy for Wallace. Not only did he start the Iowa Master Farmer program, but it also was the year he established a small seed company in Johnston. The Hi-Bred Corn Co. was the first company devoted solely to the production of hybrid seed and marketing it to farmers.

In 1935, it was renamed Pioneer Hi-Bred and continued to grow. Expanding globally, it eventually became Pioneer Hi-Bred International and now is part of Corteva Agriscience.

Hybrid corn visionary

Wallace was one of a handful of people in the world who initially recognized the potential for significant gains in production with hybrid corn.

Wallace attended Iowa State College, graduating in 1910. In college, he became fascinated with the relatively new science of genetics. After graduation, he began working on corn-breeding experiments and started breeding hybrid corn in 1920. Those early breeding efforts were at Johnston, a Des Moines suburb, on 40 acres of farmland purchased with money from the inheritance of Wallace’s wife, Ilo.

Convinced that hybrid corn had a bright future, Wallace continued to produce and market small quantities of hybrid seed to farmers. He also promoted hybrid corn through frequent writings in Wallaces Farmer.

Wallace was selected as USDA secretary by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and was elected vice president of the United States in 1940.

Hybrid adoption by farmers

The adoption of hybrid corn by farmers was slow during the first decade after its commercial introduction in the mid-1920s. By 1935, only about 6% of Iowa corn acreage was planted to hybrids.

Farmers were used to planting open-pollinated corn varieties. They could harvest open-pollinated corn, save the best-looking ears for seed and plant it the next spring. They didn’t buy seed corn. With hybrid corn, they had to buy the seed. Hybrid seed was expensive to produce, and it was in short supply.

The situation began to change in the mid-1930s. Yield tests and farmer experience during the Dust Bowl years from 1934 to 1940 demonstrated hybrids to be vastly superior to open-pollinated varieties in severe drought. Once farmers had solid evidence of the benefits of hybrid corn, the transition away from open-pollinated varieties was rapid.

In 1936, Pioneer Hi-Bred Co. released a hybrid, Pioneer 307, that had strong hybrid vigor and drought tolerance. It immediately showed value in its first year, when a catastrophic drought caused widespread loss of corn acres in Iowa. Hybrids produced double the yield of open-pollinated varieties in those extreme conditions.

Rapid adoption of hybrid corn in Iowa soon followed. About 10% of acres in Iowa were planted with hybrid corn in 1936; two years later, in 1938, it was more than half. By 1942, nearly all corn planted in Iowa was hybrid corn. Within another 20 years, hybrid corn achieved essentially 100% adoption across all U.S. corn acres.

Changes in cropping practices

While genetic improvements to the corn plant are a key part of the crop’s history, other technologies and agronomic practices also contributed to improved corn production.

Before hybrids were introduced, corn typically was planted at 8,000 to 12,000 plants per acre and grown in rows 36 to 42 inches apart. Plant densities above this level would result in smaller ears, plants without harvestable ears, greater root lodging and broken stalks. Advances in plant breeding have increased the stress tolerance of corn to where it can be planted at much higher populations while maintaining a half-pound ear on each plant.

Corn now is typically planted at 32,000 to 35,000 plants per acre in higher-yielding soil and weather situations, in rows 30 inches apart, allowing the plants to capture light more efficiently.

Other key innovations include synthetic fertilizers, chemical weed control, and mechanization of planting and harvesting. A cornfield at the beginning of the hybrid era typically would have been sparsely fertilized with livestock manure, mechanically weeded and harvested by hand.

The increased availability of nitrogen fertilizers made most tillable land suitable for corn production and allowed higher-yielding hybrids to reach their full potential. Effective herbicides allow farmers to remove weeds from fields and, in most situations, have eliminated the need to use tillage as a weed control tool. Improvements in mechanization and technology used in corn production allow farmers to plant and harvest more quickly, as well as gather yields that are seven times greater than when hybrids were introduced 100 years ago.

Crop production milestones

Equipment for applying anhydrous ammonia as a nitrogen fertilizer was introduced in the 1930s and became widely used for corn production in the late 1950s.

Growing awareness of soil erosion caused by tillage led to the adoption of conservation tillage methods beginning in the 1970s, and accelerated the adoption of no-till and strip till in the 1980s and 1990s.

The adoption of genetically engineered corn expressing insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) traits revolutionized pest management in the 1990s and 2000s.

World War II prompted increased development of technology to help improve farming. The Haber-Bosch process for industrial production of ammonia was developed in Germany. In 1946, the country switched from making bombs to manufacturing nitrogen fertilizer. The year 1946 also saw a ramping up of herbicide innovation and development for managing weeds.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a dramatic expansion in fertilizer use, driven by new corn hybrids and low nitrogen costs. However, fertilizer use peaked in 1981 and then moderated, with improved efficiency and genetic advancements allowing for higher yields without increased nitrogen.

In the early 1970s, a widespread outbreak of southern corn leaf blight resulted in significant yield losses. As a result, advances in genetics and corn breeding led to creating improved resistance to this disease.

Biotechnology era begins

The biotechnology era of corn production began with the introduction of insect-resistant Bt hybrids in 1996. A combination of yield protection provided by biotech traits and genetic advances through breeding increased the average rate of corn yield gain for this period (late 1990s to 2000s) to 2.3 bushels per acre per year.

During the biotech era, there was a significant shift to conservation tillage techniques — particularly no-till — coinciding with widespread adoption of herbicide-tolerant corn. Corn disease management has seen significant advancements since 2011 due to the emergence of new diseases like tar spot and bacterial leaf streak, as well as the reemergence of diseases such as southern rust, fungal stalk and ear rots.

Key strategies have included development of hybrids with improved resistance, identification of specific resistance genes, and the use of advanced breeding tools. Fungicide applications have become more common, with newer fungicide products containing multiple modes of action to combat resistance.

What’s beyond 2026?

Continued advancements in agricultural technology and breeding are expected to boost corn yields even more over the coming decade.

Opportunities in corn product development include using gene editing to speed up as well as reduce the cost of breeding, stacking genes for resistance to major corn diseases, using novel modes of action for insect resistance, and creating short-statured hybrids that can withstand extreme weather events.

New knowledge of the corn genome will be used to improve yield potential, agronomic traits and end-use qualities. Protecting the corn crop from diseases and pests, as well as stimulating crop growth, will continue to shift from chemical to biological solutions, whether incorporated directly into corn hybrids or applied to the soil, seed or plants.

Innovations in corn production technology will center on precision agriculture, leveraging artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors, drones and more to optimize every aspect of production from planting through harvest, to storage and delivery, to distribution to the end user.

Greater automation will result in autonomous harvesters and tractors, enhanced real-time data from integrated sensors and satellite imagery, and data-driven decisions powered by machine learning for predictive pest control and resource management.

This shift will be used to increase yields, reduce waste and improve sustainability in corn production, making production more efficient, profitable and environmentally friendly.