By Wallas Mendes da Silva and Manni Singh
Short-stature corn is gaining the attention of growers as a potential way to improve standability, reduce lodging risk and increase management flexibility. These hybrids are shorter than conventional corn, generally less than 7 feet tall, and maintain high yield potential. Since this is a new technology, one big question remains: Should short-stature corn be managed differently than traditional tall hybrids?
To help answer this question, we evaluated key agronomic management practices including row spacings and seeding rates for two short corn hybrids across two Michigan environments. Field trials were conducted in Lansing and Richville during the 2024 and 2025 growing seasons. Two short-stature corn hybrids from Bayer Crop Science were planted in three row spacings (30, 22 and 15 inches), and four seeding rates (26,000, 34,000, 42,000 and 50,000 seeds per acre). We also included two traditional tall hybrids with similar other traits for comparison.
Impact of row spacing on grain yield
Planting short corn in narrow rows paid off at Lansing 2025, with 15-inch rows yielding 7% more than 30-inch rows (Figure 1). At Richville 2025, row spacing yield differences were not significant but showed a trend of yield increase (3%) in 15-rows compared to 30-inch row spacing, indicating a modest yield benefit of narrow rows for short corn even under high-yield conditions at this location.
Source : msu.edu