The 2025 season proved that no two years in farming are alike. Learn which lessons from 2025 can help you make stronger decisions next year.
When it comes to farming, no two years are ever the same. Each season brings its own unique mix of weather shifts, pest pressures and disease outbreaks, forcing growers to adapt. The 2025 season was a clear reminder of that reality.
There are new lessons to learn every year. New challenges keep you on your toes and provide insight into what might work better next time. While every grower faced unique conditions in 2025, several lessons stand out. As you look ahead to 2026, these insights can help guide decisions that put your corn crop in the best position to succeed.
Weather and planting timing
Unpredictable weather patterns can make it difficult to pinpoint the best time to plant corn. Capturing early warm windows sets the crop up for success and monitoring soil moisture and using forecasting tools such as the UNL Yield Forecasting Center can help align planting dates with local climate trends.
Weather plays a major role in shaping each season, but it is often the secondary impacts that matter most. Growers plant when the soil is fit, yet conditions afterward influence corn emergence and growth as well as pest pressure. The weather drives shifts in insects, weeds and pathogens that also determines crop performance. Careful monitoring after planting remains essential to help you respond quickly and protect yield potential.
Hybrid selection
Choosing the right traits can make or break yields, but predicting conditions is never simple.
Drought tolerant corn hybrids are available and should be advised for growers who frequently experience drought conditions.
Selecting fully stacked hybrids provides advantages against both diseases and insects. “There are no hybrids on the market today that are completely resistant to tar spot,” says Kim Tutor, Technical Marketing Manager for Plant Health at BASF. “But some show more tolerance than others in university trials, so it’s worth working with seed reps and checking local data.”
From an insect management perspective, stacked trait packages are still valuable, but their limitations became apparent in 2025 as corn rootworm resistance expanded.
“Trait packages are still important, but they aren’t enough on their own in high-pressure areas,” explains Josh Putnam, Technical Marketing Manager for US Corn Herbicides at BASF. “Pairing them with a soil-applied insecticide like Nurizma® gives you the most tools to protect against resistant rootworm populations.”
Careful hybrid selection combined with trait stewardship will give corn a stronger foundation heading into 2026.
Nutrient management insights
Strong fertility practices remain the foundation for achieving high yields. Going into 2026 and beyond, growers should conduct thorough pre-plant soil tests, including micronutrients, to ensure a complete nutritional profile from the start. With soil test data, nutrients can be applied more strategically. Variable-rate applications guided by precision ag tools help match supply with crop demand, while in-season adjustments correct deficiencies during critical growth stages.
Balanced nutrition also helps corn use its resources more efficiently. “Under-fertilized plants are already stressed, so they end up spending energy fighting problems instead of filling kernels,” Tutor says. “Good fertility is the foundation for yield, and fungicides help make sure the plant can put that energy into grain production instead of stress management.”
Together, strong fertility and stress mitigation create a more resilient crop.
Managing insect, disease and weed pressures
If 2025 proved anything, it’s that corn rarely faces one stress at a time.
“It’s not necessarily the weather itself that matters, but how it shifts disease, insect and weed pressure,” says Tutor. “In 2025, those cooler nights and steady rains created what I’d call ‘disease heaven.’”
This led to widespread outbreaks of tar spot, southern rust, gray leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight. Veltyma® fungicide offers a flexible approach: a base program of 7 ounces at VT–R1, an optimized 10-ounce rate for higher pressure and a two-pass program for the most at-risk fields.
“If I had to sum up 2025 in one phrase, it could be a year of regret for anyone who didn’t treat with a fungicide,” says Tutor. “We saw multiple diseases in the same field, sometimes on the same plant, and that’s why proactive management matters.”
Corn rootworm pressure also surged in 2025. Because of extended diapause, previous years eggs and new ones hatched in the same season, which doubled the rootworm pressure in some fields and led to heavy adult feeding. With many populations showing resistance to existing Bt traits, pairing hybrids with Nurizma insecticide delivered consistent yield advantages in high-pressure areas. Since below-ground pests can be managed only at planting, this combination is critical for 2026 planning.
Weed control added another layer of difficulty. Frequent rainfall leached residual herbicides, leading to escapes from resistant Palmer amaranth and waterhemp. The best defense remains hitting weeds at their most vulnerable stage. “A weed’s weakest stage is before it breaks the surface,” says Putnam. “If you can stop it then, you’re already setting yourself up for better post-emerge success.”
Surtain® herbicide provides strong early-season performance, while Sharpen® herbicide offers a reliable post-harvest option to keep late-emerging weeds from adding seed back to the bank.
Risk management and adaptive planning
You invest a lot of capital into the right hybrids, fertilizers, nutrients and equipment. However, when budgets are tight, too many farmers skip out on crop protection programs. You need to treat crop protection decisions as an investment in yield preservation rather than a gamble on whether disease or pests will strike.
“We need to stay ahead of the game,” Putnam adds. “That means scouting, using multiple sites of action and following a true integrated pest management approach.”
Adaptive planning also relies on close monitoring and evaluation. Weather tools, soil management and precision ag data all help growers respond quickly to changing conditions. The goal is to build yield potential and protect it with layered practices that prevent stress from impacting performance.
Experts are available to assist you in making informed management decisions. Reach out to your seed retailer, a nearby extension office agent or a seed company professional like your regional BASF representative.
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