Overlooking thousands of acres of the most fertile soil in the United States, CHS Agri Service Center knows corn is king. Based at Holdrege, Neb., just 25 miles south of the east-west center of the nation and a few miles south of the irrigation-friendly Platte River, the cooperative is expanding in response to the steadily increasing corn crop.

In the last four years, CHS Agri Service Center has built a new 28,000-ton dry crop nutrients hub plant, increased its liquid fertilizer capacity, added 3.8 million bushels of grain storage, upgraded grain handling and drying facilities at four locations, and dedicated 20 acres next to its main office to seed and agronomic test plots.

“We’ve grown to meet the needs of our customers as their operations continue to get larger,” says General Manager Don Lien.

More Growers Aim for 300-Bushel Corn

Yield contest winners have been topping the 300-bushels-per-acre mark for several years, but last season there were more reports of 300-bushel yields in more typical corn fields.

“We definitely heard more growers talking about it last year, and this year reaching 300 bushels seems like a more doable goal,” says Greg Ernst, seed division manager and agronomy salesman for CHS Agri Service Center in Holdrege, Neb.

One of the most popular stops in the cooperative’s Answer Plot® Program tour last season was the plant population trials, he recalls. “With the caliber of the corn hybrids we have now, some of them can be pushed to 36,000 plants per acre, and growers are definitely starting to understand the possibilities of increasing their yields that way. Many of our growers said they would be trying it this season and adjusted their seed orders based on that goal.

“We have some of the best soils in the country,” he adds, “so the potential for more 300-bushel yields is really possible with careful nutrient management.”