While the average yield increase has continued at about the same rate in yield per unit area, the percentage rate based on previous yields has declined. The rate of increase will be greater on the better soils that are well supplied with water and where weather is not limiting, than on soils where limiting factors become critical. The difference in yield was probably due to better management and better soils at the Contest winners sites. While much-has been written about breakthroughs in genetic manipulation, these advances will probably not result in major yield increases on the farm during the next decade. It is expected that genetic improvements will, be important in providing plant protection technologies.
Some effort is underway to develop specific corn strains for different soil and landscape positions.
This has been done for some specialty crops. An exciting and promising effort is to genetically develop corn for different uses. If this can be done, specialty corn may be grown specifically for sugar, alcohol, feed, oil, direct consumption by humans, etc. Modern genetic tools may speed up this effort of designer varieties for specific market uses. Another possibility is to improve the milling processes to better separate the chemical components of corn.