Answer Plot Data Provides Insights into Corn
Nov 10, 2026
While we’ve gleaned plenty of info from our own Discovery Plots, we find data from Croplan® Winfield United® Answer Plots® to be extremely helpful as well. The 2026 corn results are in, so let’s break them down.
“One of the most important decisions growers have under their control every year is picking a hybrid or variety,” said Federated agronomy sales manager Kevin Carlson. “It’s a really important step to start the year, and one of the best sources of information that guide that decision is the Answer Plot.”
Yield trumps everything, but the info we learn about the products in Answer Plots (and our own Discovery Plots) can help us make these products work even better.
Answer Plots provide deeper information about the products. Nitrogen response by hybrid, for example. Fungicide response. Plant population response by hybrid. It’s all incredibly valuable information, and it gets more valuable the deeper you look.
“An interesting note about this Answer Plot data I noticed is that if you look at the 15-year average of nitrogen, fungicide, and plant population, you can learn great things,” Carlson said. “If you pick the right combination of those things, the average response is 88 bushels per acre. That’s a pretty big number!”
Another thing we’ve learned over the last few years of Answer Plot data is that full-season hybrids give you the best yield potential. “We had a long growing season with a lot of heat units,” Carlson said. “We averaged anywhere from 250 to 400 GDU above average for the whole growing season. That’s 10 to 25 percent higher than normal. Full-season varieties and hybrids take advantage of that. They just inherently have more yield potential.”
If you have any questions about the Answer Plot data, your Federated Agronomist will be more than happy to go over the data.