Wayne Sloan of Sloan Farms Inc., in Gore recently won second place in the class A no-till/strip-till non-irrigated division of the 2004 National Corn Growers' Association's (NCGA) Corn Yield Contest in Oklahoma. Sloan won with Pioneer(r) brand hybrid 33V15, which yielded 168.04 bushels per acre, Bill Fleet, vice-president of sales, said.

Sloan planted the winning entry on March 9 in fields grown to soybeans in 2003. He planted the crop into 30-inch rows using a John Deere 1700 eight-row planter at a rate of 24,000 seeds per acre. Sloan applied a total of 160 pounds of nitrogen, 50 pounds of phosphorous and 50 pounds of potash per acre to enhance fertility. He used a John Deere 9650 combine to harvest the winning plot on Aug. 24.

Sloan earned one of the 359 state titles won with more than 91 different Pioneer hybrids. The NCGA awarded 532 state and national titles in this year's contest. Growers planting Pioneer hybrids dominated the contest and won 71.7 percent of all awards presented.

The NCGA Corn Yield Contest is an annual competition among corn producers with the goal of producing the highest yields. In the contest, growers compete in nine corn production classes, including non-irrigated (A and AA), no-till/strip-till non-irrigated (A and AA), no-till/strip-till irrigated ridge-till non-irrigated (A and AA), ridge-till irrigated and irrigated classes.

"We're pleased to see the tremendous results that growers achieved in the NCGA contest this year with Pioneer products. Corn growers are looking for every opportunity to increase their return per acre. At Pioneer, we deliver higher yielding products, trusted technology and personalized value to help customers achieve success. And when Pioneer growers win 24 of 27 national NCGA awards and more than 70 percent of all NCGA state awards, we think that's pretty successful," Fleet said.

For additional information about the company or products, check our worldwide Web site: http://www.pioneer.com.