The National Corn Growers Association released the 2020 National Corn Yield Contest winners on Monday, revealing a winning tally of 476.91 bushels/acre on a Michigan farm. Though it’s short of the 2019 yield record of 616.2 bushels/acre, this year’s contest netted higher participation, with 7,844 farmers from 48 states participating. As it normally does, the yield contest featured intensive management that is typically infeasible on farm-wide levels, including increased fertilizer applications, many coming at planting or side-dressed. New to this year’s contest was the sharp increase in sustainable practices among participants; almost half of entries came from systems including cover crops and around 3/4 of total entries came from reduced-tillage operations and those with integrated pest management programs in place. See more results from the 2020 yield contest.