Global Maize Project in the United States: Virginia

A total of nine individual studies were conducted at the Davis Farm near New Kent, Virginia in the summer of 2017. The four main A-site studies compared mid-Atlantic farmer standard practices for corn production to a suite of practices identified for inclusion in the “Ecological Intensification” (EI) treatment in irrigated and rain-fed fields. Corn was planted on April 20, 2017 into a recently killed wooly pod vetch + rye + turnip cover crop. The hybrid Pioneer 1197AM was planted in 30-inch rows for both treatments. The primary soil series for the site-A experiments (rain-fed and irrigated) was Pamunkey silt loam (fine-loamy, mixed, semi-active, thermic, ultic Hapludalfs).

The Virginia statewide average corn yield in 2017 was 154 bu/A, while the grain yields in these studies were 159 bu/A for both treatments in rain-fed and over 290 bu/A for the irrigated test. No statistical difference in grain yield was detected in the rain-fed study; but, in the irrigated study, grain yield for the EI treatment was found to be greater than the mid-Atlantic standard at the significance level of .<0.05 (306 vs 293 bu/A).