Western Research sign beside rows of corn trial plots marked with Western Hybrids variety signs

Research

Thirty-three planned locations.
One standard.

Every year we start with 308 hybrids. Fewer than 10% advance to another year of data collection before they ever reach the farm.

Ask for trial data
Aerial view of a Western Hybrids research plot, with distinct hybrid strips visible as banding across the field
Western Hybrids photoSide-by-side hybrid strip trials in a Western Hybrids research plot — each band is a different hybrid, grown and measured against its neighbors on the same ground, in the same season, under the same water.

The funnel

308 in. Fewer than 10% forward.

A hybrid does not get into the bag because it looked good once. It gets there by surviving years of western data.

308hybrids enter the program each year
33corn research locations planned across the western US for 2026
<10%advance to another year of data collection
The fewthat survive multiple years reach the farm

Where we test — 2026

The map for this season

Thirty‑two corn hybrid trial sites are on the ground for 2026, planted between 8 April and 29 May across Idaho, Washington and Utah — plus three forage trials: alfalfa in southern Utah, timothy in the Columbia Basin and a forage trial at Malin, Oregon now in its second year.

Select a pin to explore a trial site, or open the map's sidebar to browse locations. Open the map in a new tab if it does not load here.

Idaho

22
  • Canyon7
  • Twin Falls4
  • Cassia3
  • Gooding2
  • Jerome2
  • Bonneville1
  • Payette1
  • Power1
  • Washington1

Washington

9
  • Grant3
  • Adams2
  • Yakima2
  • Benton1
  • Franklin1

Utah

1
  • Iron1

Forage

3
  • Iron, UT1
  • Franklin, WA1
  • Klamath, OR1

Season

  • First planting8 Apr
  • Last planting29 May
  • Corn sites32
  • Forage trials3

The interactive map is maintained by Jonathan Shurtliff and reflects the active 2026 research locations. Thirty‑three corn locations were planned for the season; thirty‑two corn sites are planted and mapped, alongside three forage trials.

How a trial is planted

Every site, the same grid

One design runs across all thirty‑two corn locations: nineteen ranges randomized at every site, bordered on all sides, with commercial check hybrids planted in the same field and under the same water as our own entries.

19Ranges at
every site
15,938Corn plots on
the 2026 maps
152–798Plots per site,
median 475
308Entries under
test this year
  • Western Hybrids entry under test
  • Commercial check hybrid
  • Seed treatment comparison
  • Fill or border plot
A representative 2026 site — nineteen ranges, twenty‑seven plots per range, five hundred and thirteen plots. Ranges are numbered 1800 down to 000; plots are numbered inside the range, so range 1200 holds 1201, 1202, 1203 and on down the row. The diagram shows what each plot is, not which hybrid is in it.

Randomized at every site

Nothing inherits an advantage from a good end of a field. No hybrid sits in the same position twice.

Bordered and filled

Perimeter ranges and edge plots are planted to fill. No test plot competes against open ground on an outside edge, which is where a lot of plot data quietly goes wrong.

Checks in the same field

Commercial standards at five relative‑maturity bands — roughly 83, 94, 101, 106 and 115 day — are planted in thirty‑one of the thirty‑two trials, so the comparison is made on the same ground in the same season.

Conventional screened too

Seventy-one of this year’s entries are conventional, and 237 are traited, for a total of 308. Two locations are given over to conventional screening rather than mixing it in with traited material.

A seed treatment block

Ten sites carry a thirty‑plot seed treatment comparison — six treatments, five replications each — planted inside the same trial so the seed, the soil and the water are held constant.

Forage on the same discipline

The Malin, Oregon forage trial runs 198 test plots — 64 treatments at three replications, alfalfa and grass together — inside a planted border. The southern Utah alfalfa trial runs 101 test plots at three replications, and the Columbia Basin timothy trial runs 75 plots across fifteen varieties, comparing coated against raw seed.

Layout and counts taken from the 2026 active research trial maps. Cooperators are not named and entry identities are not published — ask your territory manager for the data behind any hybrid in the lineup. The 15,938 figure counts plots on the trial maps; the 18,562 figure elsewhere on this site counts seed packets and plots together.

Why it matters

Western data beats a Midwest recommendation

Tested and proven to give the best results in our environment — not a recommendation from a Midwest-focused brand.

A hybrid that tops a trial in Illinois has told you something about Illinois. Our program exists so that the number you are shown was earned on ground that looks like yours.

  • Data collected in the western states, on western irrigation and elevation.
  • Multi-year screening — one good season is not a result.
  • Rejection is the point: fewer than 10% move forward.
  • Your rep can walk you through the data behind any hybrid we sell.
Close-up of an excavated corn root mass in dark soil
Root mass and standability are part of what we screen for.
Put the same discipline in your own field. Our Planting Report Card is the one-page worksheet our team uses to score a stand — seed spacing, how many plants reach full potential, and what the stand is worth per acre. Use it as a live calculator or print it and take it with you.

Want to see the numbers?

Ask your territory manager for the trial data behind any hybrid, variety or mix in the lineup.

Contact a rep