Lamar Black of Tilmanstone Farms recently won third place in the No Till/Strip Till Irrigated division of the 2007 National Corn Growers' Association (NCGA) Corn Yield Contest in Georgia. Black won with Pioneer brand hybrid 31D58, which yielded 258 bushels per acre.

Black earned one of the 334 state titles won by growers planting Pioneer hybrids. The NCGA awarded 527 state titles in this year's contest. Growers planting Pioneer hybrids dominated the contest and won 65 percent of all state awards presented. In addition, growers planting Pioneer products took 20 of the 27 national yield categories.

The NCGA Corn Yield Contest is an annual competition among corn producers with the goal of producing the highest yields. In the contest, growers compete within a broad range of corn production classes including non-irrigated, no-till/ strip-till non-irrigated, no-till/ strip till irrigated, ridge-till nonirrigated, ridge-till irrigated and irrigated classes.

Black planted the winning entry March 23, 2007 in fields grown to peanuts in 2006. He planted the crop into 30-inch rows using a Monosem NG+ six-row planter at a rate of 32,200 seeds per acre.

Black applied a total of 250 pounds of nitrogen, 95 pounds of phosphorous and 210 pounds of potash per acre to enhance fertility. He used a Case IH 1680 combine to harvest the winning plot.