Have you ever planted the same hybrid as your neighbor and had different results? Or learn the best-yielding hybrid on your farm is not the “plot winner” in the dealer’s plot?

Those questions are the fuel behind Beck’s Product Characterization Research, where we focus on what management practices influence yield, and how we can understand them through each plant’s unique characteristics.

Consider winning-losing structure

Dealer plots and other research trials designed to focus on product-portfolio strength and identifying genetic gain are naturally structured to identify winners and losers. That’s not a bad thing. It’s important to compare new genetics with current genetics to identify whether we’re planting the correct hybrids for each farm’s environment and to isolate opportunities for genetic gain.

Beck’s dealers each plant a plot to evaluate 10 to 15 hybrids, giving us a look at current and new hybrids. When dealer-plot results are published, human nature leads us to ask ourselves one question – “Which hybrid won?”

Think of it like a tournament. There are 10 to 15 teams, with multiple games being played and performance of one team pitted against the next – with the best team advancing along the way. At the end of the tournament the winner is crowned. When we compare products, only one can be crowned the winner.

Results-mindset shifts

What specifics did we learn about the “winning hybrid” in that plot structure? Simply put, we learned that it achieved a better yield than the other hybrids. But why? That’s where answers start to reveal themselves to the questions you might have on why your No. 1-yielding hybrid only earned third or fourth place in a dealer’s plot. We’re glad it didn’t land in last place, but even a third- or fourth-place finish raises a few questions.

Here’s the paradigm shift; the reason lies in how corn hybrids and soybean varieties are managed.

• Did you plant the same population as the local dealer?

• What rate of nitrogen was applied?

• Where and when was that nitrogen applied?

• Did the dealer apply a fungicide and you skipped it?

When products perform differently in the same environment, we’ve identified that management is the difference. So if management is the difference, we need to shift our mindset from focusing on winners and losers to understanding what management practices or decisions influence the yield of our products.

Research reveals differences

Enter Beck’s Root Reveal™ and Product Characterization Research. The data and understandings that we learned in 2025 confirm that performance differences exist between your farm and your neighbor’s farm – even with the same hybrid.

That’s not saying you or your neighbor are doing anything wrong; it’s just a new layer of information and understanding that needs to be revealed so best decisions can be made. A dealer might recommend hybrids that match your management practice. Or you might make slight management changes to each hybrid. Our Product Characterization Research is designed to test the hybrid against itself to identify what management triggers matter the most – population, nitrogen placement or nitrogen rate.

We gained insights from the 24 hybrids tested in Beck’s 2025 research. Think of plant population as the space between each plant, not as the number of plants per acre. When roots touch each other, it signals a stress that limits yield potential.

• Vertical roots respond better to increased population. Vertical roots don’t fill as much space between plants, so increasing population will maximize that “unused space.”

• Horizontal roots respond better to reduced populations. Horizontal roots need more space between plants, so reducing the population will allow that “room to breathe.”

Beck’s tested three populations in 30-foot rows – 28,000, 34,000 and 40,000. According to the 2025 research, the recommendation holds true of reduced populations for horizontal and increased populations for vertical roots.

Beck’s team has shifted to focus on nitrogen rate and placement, even increasing Practical Farm Research efforts toward nitrogen placement by root architecture. The theory is that vertically rooted hybrids will respond better to nitrogen placed closer to the row because they don’t have as many roots between the rows.

In both Practical Farm Research and Product Characterization Research, that theory appears to be holding true. The 2025 data highlighted there is an excellent return rate from placing nitrogen next to the row for vertically-rooted hybrids; it’s not as important for horizontal- or balanced-rooted hybrids.

But more nitrogen was not always better. That’s why Beck’s is digging deep on that topic, even though we’ve spent the past 40-plus years researching the correct rate of nitrogen in corn production. That could be because the hybrids we’ve used in research each year are not the same.

Summary

Beck’s in 2025 evaluated 24 hybrids against themselves in Product Characterization Research and confirmed the theories shared here, giving us the confidence to move full-steam ahead with the research. It’s a unique research protocol that will rule out generalizations gleaned year-over-year, help us better understand each hybrid, shift our focus away from winners and losers, and give you the confidence that the correct products are in the correct management hands for them all to be winners on your farm.

Visit beckshybrids.com for more information.