Kevin Wood doesn't care if you call him narrow-minded. The Raymond, Ill., farmer is looking for a way to eke every last corn bushel out of his land. When a 2008 twin-row corn plot showed an amazing 30-bu. yield bump, he wanted a closer look at the concept.

His curiosity mirrors that of the Farm Journal Test Plots team, which first tested twin rows in 1999. The momentum for the practice of planting two rows 7" apart on 30" centers has built in the past few years as more corn contest yield winners use twin rows to take home honors.

"By 2006, twin rows had advanced from a niche practice used primarily by vegetable growers to a mainstream option for corn growers,” says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist, who oversaw our replicated twin-row plots. "That was the year when some of the winners in the National Corn Growers Association Yield Contest used twins to achieve their big yields.”

Twin rows work well for producers who have maxed out planting populations and yield potential in 30" rows, Ferrie notes. The narrow row spacing can also aid in water management.

Yield quest. To evaluate twin rows for himself, Wood and his son, Brian, worked with Channel Bio, a seed corn subsidiary of Monsanto Company, to launch a twin-row test. Other farmers soon jumped on board and the effort ultimately covered 7,900 acres in

Illinois, Arkansas and Missouri.

"Our goal is to find a way to push populations beyond the 36,000 to 37,000 plants per acre typical of 30" rows,” Brian explains. "We want an ear on each plant about the size of a soda can.”

As you might guess, it turned out to be a tough season for any kind of test. The wet spring led to late planting and that was further complicated by the sharing of twin-row planters to establish the test strips.

Yield results for the first-year plots at Wood Farms ranged from an 11-bu. yield advantage to an 11-bu. yield loss. Father and son saw the best results with more determinate-type hybrids.

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