harvest gives farmers more than a yield number
As the combine moves across the field, it’s also revealing where disease showed up, which products stood strong, how different acres responded to stress and where management decisions paid off.
Those observations can provide valuable clues for 2027.
Where Did Disease Show Up?
Make note of disease pressure while the evidence is still easy to see.
Did Sudden Death Syndrome appear in certain soybean fields? White mold in others? Did stalk disease affect standability in corn?
Field history matters. Knowing where problems occurred — and how different products handled them — can help guide variety selection, seed treatment decisions and management strategies for next season.
What Stayed Standing?
Yield matters, but so does getting that yield into the combine.
Pay attention to stalk and root strength in corn and standability in soybeans. Which products maintained late-season plant health? Where did lodging occur? Did certain fields or growing conditions create more problems than others?
Those observations can help identify where stronger defensive characteristics may deserve more consideration in 2027.
What Happened on Your Tougher Acres?
Some of the most useful harvest information may come from fields that didn’t have ideal growing conditions.
Look at how products handled drought stress, excess moisture, disease pressure and variable soils. A product that held its own under challenging conditions may tell you just as much as one that topped the yield monitor on your best ground.
Where Did Population and Placement Matter?
Did a flex-ear corn hybrid respond well at a moderate population? Did another product seem better suited to your highest-yielding acres? Were there differences between soil types or management practices?
The goal isn’t simply to identify the highest-yielding product. It’s to understand where each product performs best.
What Would You Do Differently in 2027?
Harvest is a good time to start building that list.
Maybe one field needs stronger disease protection. Another needs a product better suited for stress. Perhaps this season reinforced the value of spreading risk across different genetics, maturities and trait packages.
Every field is different — and every growing season teaches us something new.
Before the details of 2026 fade, take a few notes. Talk through what you’re seeing with your Latham® Dealer. Look beyond the final yield number and consider the story behind it.
Because your fields may already be telling you what they need in 2027.
