Growing degree graphs include cumulative lines for 1996 and normal. All graphs include vertical lines indicating planting, silking, and harvest dates, if available. General trends in precipitation and rainfall relative to normal are readily observed in the graphs. For more detailed information, a table is included with monthly totals and averages for the growing season. Comparisons of the current year's weather with long-time averages often help explain unusual plant development patterns and inconsistent performance of individual hybrids over years.
Explanatory information is given preceding data summaries for each test.
Tables 1-14 contain results from individual locations of the standard corn performance tests. Hybrids are no longer separated into groups based on hybrid maturity because of the difficulty in accurately assigning a maturity class before the growing season. Rather, hybrids are now listed in order of increasing days to half silk and increasing grain moisture for the current year so hybrids of similar maturity appear together. Table 19 lists yields expressed as a percent of the test averages from the short-season tests. The 1996 entrants, entries, and some additional descriptive information are listed in the Appendixes.