Corn Belt South crop variety reviews · 2026.
The Southern Corn Belt straddles the rainfall transition from East to West, where dryland farmers in Kansas and Nebraska are picking varieties for drought-tolerance traits as aggressively as Iowa farmers pick for yield potential. Grain sorghum returns to the rotation as rainfall declines westward.
Transition climate from humid East to semi-arid West. Western parts depend on irrigation; eastern parts are dryland. Drought tolerance is a primary variety selection criterion.
Strong performers in Corn Belt South
- CornSeed Company Data
DEKALB drought-tolerance positioning is well-suited to the Western Corn Belt where dryland acres see meaningful yield variability driven by July rainfall. Goss's wilt resistance matters in continuous-corn rotations common in irrigated Nebraska.
Corn Belt South variety trial programs
Land-grant universities serving Corn Belt South publish annual variety trial reports. These are the gold standard for variety performance data — independent, replicated, peer-reviewed methodology.
- University of Missouri Variety Testingvarietytesting.missouri.edu ↗
- Kansas State Variety Trialswww.agronomy.k-state.edu/extension ↗
- University of Nebraska CropWatchcropwatch.unl.edu ↗