More than a century ago, Seaman A. Knapp saw the value of doing demonstration work in agriculture. That tradition continues across many states, and Louisiana is no exception as demonstration plots are conducted on many crops, including corn and soybeans.

Shelly Kerns, LSU AgCenter corn, grain sorghum and cotton specialist, coordinates on-farm corn hybrid variety trials. She works with area agriculture and natural resources agents in selecting sites, and the agents help plant, harvest and collect the yield data. This year, she planted 13 trials in 12 parishes across the state.

Kerns said she is testing 10 hybrids in her on-farm tests.

“I was excited to include Claiborne Parish this year,” Kerns said. “It’s not one of our traditional corn-producing areas, so it will be interesting to see how it performed when the final data is analyzed.”

Weather is a factor every year when conducting research, and in 2026, the weather played a role in the very beginning.

“We got that big freeze on March 17, and that severely affected corn plots all across the state,” she said. “We were not immune to it, and we lost the trial in East Carroll Parish.”

Because of the freeze, corn seed became scarce as farmers were scrambling to replant. Some farmers were unable to secure any seed, and corn acres became soybean or cotton acres.

The freeze stressed some of her other plots, but they remained viable and are going to be included in the Corn Hybrids for Grain publication, which is published in the fall and can be found on the AgCenter website.

“It could provide us some insight as to what effect early stress, such as the freeze, can have on certain hybrids compared to others,” Kerns said.

At the Claiborne demonstration plots, Kerns is investigating how the plants respond to chicken litter that was incorporated into the soil, which is somewhat unique for these trials. Kerns just started examining the crops for disease, including northern corn leaf blight, southern rust and Curvularia leaf spot, a disease that has seen a rise in recent years.

“All of the disease ratings will be included in the final report for growers to examine,” she said.

Another unique component of the on-farm demonstration plots is that they are managed by the farmers, meaning the cultivation techniques can be similar in some ways and different in others.

“We are going to be looking at many aspects of production with each of these trials,” Kerns said. “Are they irrigated or nonirrigated? What were the fertilization rates and how were they split? What soil types were they grown on? And others. All of this should provide us some very useful information.”

Corn core block locations: Avoyelles, Beauregard, Caldwell, Claiborne, Concordia, Franklin, Ouachita, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, Richland, Tensas and West Carroll.