Local agronomist talks new hybrids, pest & disease trends

Bontrager looks forward to 2025 
growing season 

  • Certified Agronomist Orvin Bontrager of Aurora (above) has more than 45 years of experience helping farmers grow crops. At right is a photo he took last year of what he calls a moderate infection of tar spot on a corn leaf. He said when it gets to this stage it is almost too late to apply fungicide.
    Certified Agronomist Orvin Bontrager of Aurora (above) has more than 45 years of experience helping farmers grow crops. At right is a photo he took last year of what he calls a moderate infection of tar spot on a corn leaf. He said when it gets to this stage it is almost too late to apply fungicide.

    It’s no secret that the development of hybrid seed varieties in the 1930s has played a huge part in the explosion of crop yields over the past century. A graph of U.S. corn yields since 1866 (when records first began being kept) until 2022 shows that from the 1860s through the 1930’s, corn yields bumped up and down along a mostly flat line of yields ranging from below 20 to more than 30 bushe…