Happy Harvests

first of all let's get the matter of introductions out of the way if you don't Bob garsten Charlie Thomas here goes this is Bob Bart if you see him again this winter you won't be wearing a hat fan either and here's John Thomas who's constant attention to growing and processing seed corn is your crop insurance for next year the result of this partnership is an institution dedicated to the production of superior seed corn the largest and most modern plant in existence more than a hundred thousand bushels of pioneer hybrid seed were dried sorted graded and bagged here this year the warehouse 300 feet long and with the capacity of more than 40,000 bushels was recently built to accommodate the increasing volume and how and why it's useful put more money in your pocket but before we see what has been done with hybrid corn let's take a look at a field of open pollinated corn I think you'll recognize maybe we can refresh your memory about the faults and the flaws of open pollinated pause anywhere in the Corn Belt fields of open pollinated corn greets the eye this one isn't a bad feel in fact it's pretty good but it won't bear close inspection garstin Thomas have thousands of visitors every fall to insist upon seeing the difference between open pollinated corns and pioneer hi-bred corn nor worse than the average field yet there's a decided lack of stiffness here which is notably present in the hybrid fields your to visit later you will observe a general lack of stiffness and style looks like the cows had been in the corn there's an appearance of sagginess due mostly to fall in stocks stocks that break before the ears mature caused champion dropping ears not sound corn and not conducive to large yields the stocks upon which these ears were produced went down early with resultant rottenness of the ear limber stocks are easily blown down that are difficult to pick either by hand or by machine when the wind is accompanied by rain the Fallen stock attempts to come up again and in so doing forms a gooseneck another reason for stocks falling is a poor weak root system a typical fault of open-pollinated corn later you will contrast this root with the heavy pioneer hi-bred root the lack of uniformity in pint of ears of open pollinated corn slows down picking materially for this reason corn picking contests are practically always held in high bred fields where the contestants show to the greatest advantage the uneven position of ears seen here does not permit rapid or efficient husky another fault of open pollinated corn is the fact that the ears themselves drop off so easily on windy days a mechanical corn picker can't pick up these ears a human corn picker doesn't like to after the corn picker has been through the open pollinated field the job of picking up fallen ears yet remains this extra task is wholly unnecessary in the pioneer hi-bred fields which you'll soon see 10% of the corn was left on the ground too much to leave but a lot of work to get and here's what you finally do get on uniform size shape and quality for the lack of uniformity and bigger in the field that we've just looked at is that you don't know which pollen grain pollinated each separate pound in other words you don't know who the daddy was no one would be so foolish as to try to improve livestock without selecting the finest sire the reason you get a prize-winning bull or a good boar is because some breeder has selected his grandparents with the greatest of care now let's take a look at a field of pioneer hybrid corn where we do know the father from the grandfather in fact we know all of the ancestry for ten generations back the cloud gets larger you know what they say about building a better mousetrap this is daily routine during harvest time at the Garston Thomas plant in Coon Rapids where visitors are welcome seeing is believing here's an example of what pioneer hybrid seed corn will do for you there's an ear on every stock the ears are at a uniform height and the stops are standing up stiff straight and strong and the ears will bear plenty of inspection to again the uniformity of height is extremely noticeable product of two adjacent hills three emphasizes the uniformity of the ears for size type and quality they're a noonday meal for any horse pioneer produces corn of real quality it's good feed and it markets at top prices what all of you who've marveled at hundred bushels per acre yields you're now seeing one hundred and ten bushels to the acre what do you think of this neighborhood of healthy ears called the Gold Coast by one visitor 110 bushels to the acre means eighty eight hundred pounds of ear corn it takes sturdy stops to hold up this kind of a crop how beautifully they stand we can even see angle risers crosswise through the corn field take a look down that aisle a pathway to prosperity and what's more the ears don't fall off when the wind blows remember how easily they fell in the other field smoke that one in your pipe mister corne can't stand up without a root system either go ahead and pull it out it can be done but it takes plenty of help these roots go down where the plants will endorse your arm they oughta produce corn they've had plenty of opportunity to absorb a lot of nourishment from the soil and they did produce a lot of corn roots tell a lot of the story of pioneer hi-bred corn which one of these two loops do you think has the best chance to get down where the moisture and plant food are which one will hold the stock the straightest a pioneer hi-bred root is four times as large the mechanical Quantic are also gets a real chance to do a good job in hybrid corn sooner or later all farmers will be using the corn thicker the heavy root system sturdy straight stops and strong shanks of Pioneer hybrids are well adapted to mechanical foreign thinking this is corn raising reduced to a science in a few minutes that wagon will be back full of corn from four rows seventy rods long when picking coin by hand or mechanically how convenient it is to find the ear at a uniform height on every stop there aren't two inches difference in the height of ears just to show that these individual hills aren't unusual for this pioneer field let's pick three consecutive hills how uniform they are in height how nicely they break out and what fun to pick these Golden Ears and man what up prophet three adjacent hills nine big fine quality ears harder to hold them to husk over here the corn pickers already made one round seventy rods long and here's the tape hold on there old boy over then we can't blame you at that they'd never believe you back home if you didn't have some corn to back it up and over in the corner of the field the loaded wagons are dumped the coin elevated onto waiting trucks and headed for the processing plant in one day three men with a corn picker have picked 2,000 bushels from 19 acres of land and loaded it onto the truck again we repeat corn raising reduced to a science and saw the town it goes and while we string along behind let's glance at the field that was picked with the sturdy straight pollen rows left standing the corn from these pollen rows is never used for seed but is later picked and fair back at the Platte our cargo potential seedcorn gets ready to face its Judgment Day it looks mighty fine out there in the fields and it would be excellent in any grain market or feedlot but it must undergo many severe and exacting processes before it becomes pioneer hybrid seed corn the quality hybrid truckload after truckload of carefully bred corn is hauled from farms of nine counties in the vicinity of the garstin Thomas plant corn that has been brand and grown under vigilant supervision of pioneer experts the crowds of visitors are always interested in studying the many reasons for pioneer supremacist good substantial businessman beans all interested in learning why pioneer can afford to extend its famous replanting agreement to all purchasers to find out why pioneer can back up performance with an agreement that makes this hybrid seed as good as a gilt-edged bomb ah Niagara of golden well pours over the top and down the conveyor belt into the large bins beneath cream-of-the-crop disscourn but still only embryo seed until it has been processed thoroughly to fulfill the rigid requirements pioneers are max only 60% of these tears are good enough to become pioneer hybrid seed pod the rest will be fed on Bob Darcy and Charlie Thomas's farms in the sorting plant another chef leaves another comes on duty and the ear corn faces its first acid test three shifts a day 230 men to a ship just a cross-section of a large number of men whose skill and hard work makes possible a hybrid like pioneer approximately 8,000 bushels are handled in the sorting back each day only one variety is inspected at one time to insure against any mistake in classifying each ear is individually examined every damage channel is removed all off-site beers are discarded and only the choice corn is dropped in the Box foresee inferior or light ears are rejected no farmer ever started his own seed with greater care from the hundreds of skilled workmen farm minded young men from Nebraska Missouri Iowa and Kansas emerged the checkers those links hide inspectors who reexamine every ear and every kernel to make sure there has been no oversight the words are famous and handy check and double-check this careful sorting and restarting is another reason why pioneer corn grows uniformly and vigorously uniformity is elemental in quality hybrid corn it took many seasons of breeding to get ears like these they still have a long hard path to go but so far they have proved beyond doubt to have quality and breeding the choice corn that survives this series of inspections is conveyed directly from the sordid piles by way of a conveyor belt system which transports it to the root of the large frying bins and fence into the cribs below portable dryers along the side of the cribs force hot air through the corn six oil burning front Swift fans driven by 60 horsepower motors maintain a constant temperature of 110 degrees just like a hot wind off the Kansas wheat fields the constant hot air pressure reduces the moisture content to 12% and assures splendid germination later guarding the seed against possible danger from cold weather the corn now sorted checked and dried and already over some top hurdles proceeds on its way up the ladder of success to the corn Shelley at full capacity these chalets can shell 1,000 bushels an hour on the top floor of the grading plan the sorted dried and shelled corn starts its homestretch trip through the main plant the postgraduate course and processing that adds finishing touches to a truly great scene for several sets of sodding drums separate the large kernels from the small kernels and the pea we in fact circles are removed breeders on the floor below divide the large round from the large flat and the small round from the small flat making for kernel sizes accurate grading permits accurate planting which means uniform stands this mercury treated superior seed corn has finished the long race and is now worthy of the name pioneer finally receiving the award of merit the familiar trademark of Pioneer hybrid seed corn every sack has been stamped to show the kernel size and variety the particular variety being sac today happens to be another pioneer champion a banner Trophy winner in the Iowa State yield tests a masterpiece in scientific seed selection sealed by sowing the bag contains genuine pioneer hybrid seed corn the real McCoy a perfect seed that has successfully withstood the many tests and processes this seal is for the customer's protection when Pioneer corn is sealed in the bag your next year's banner crop is as good as in the bag - it's bred and selected to produce prize years seven different varieties each adapted to a particular area each one students of varying climatic conditions are stored in the three large Garston Thomas warehouses until delivery can there be any wonder with generations of breeding and the painstaking processing that each kernel of Pioneer corn receives by the famous pioneer replanting agreement can be offered with the purchase of each bushel of corn this replanting agreement ensures that if for any reason including worm damage and floods you have to replant pioneer hybrid corn the seed for replanting is free pioneer first oldest and largest producer of commercial hybrids can give you this assurance only because it's time-tested results every all the guesswork from corn growing when you buy pioneer you'll get more for your money it costs a dollar an acre more to plant pioneer hybrid seed and normally it increases the yield around 14 bushels or seven dollars in other words it Nets you six dollars an acre more profits and now I want to thank you for your interest many of you have seen our processing plant and visited our seed fields and can vouch for everything you've seen here today and more - for the rest we've tried to bring them out into mow hammer to show you how pioneer hybrid corn is produced and what it will do for you next year we trust you to join those thousands who know that pioneer the quality hybrid is the surest way to happy harvest