Ohio Corn Performance Test: Yield Results and 2025 Growing Season Overview

The purpose of the Ohio Crop Performance Trials is to evaluate hybrids and varieties for grain yield and other important agronomic characteristics. Archive results include the period 2000-2025 (https://u.osu.edu/perf/archive/), but some of these trials date back to the 1970s.

Results of the trials can assist farmers in selecting hybrids and varieties best suited to their farming operations and production environments and can complement recommendations made by seed companies and breeding programs. Going into 2026 growing season, hybrid and variety selection should be prioritized to maximize crop yield and ROI, especially when input costs are high, crop prices are low, and weather patterns continue to insert variability.

Yield Results and 2025 Growing Season Overview

In 2025, corn hybrids were tested in ten counties (Van Wert, Wood, Wyandot, Crawford, Wayne, Columbiana, Licking, Fayette, Clark, Miami) grouped in three Ohio regions: Northwestern, North Central/Northeastern, and Southwest/West Central (Figure 1). Each region had 3 to 4 locations. At each location, there is an early maturity trial and a full season trial. In 2025, overall corn yields were higher compared to 2024, and they varied depending on location. Corn yields ranged from as low as 106 bu/acre in Wood County and as high as 338 bu/acre in Wyandot County. A summary of corn yield by location and maturity trial is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Corn yield range and average yield at each trial location for the early and late maturity trials, 2025 season.

Lower corn yields for some sites and the variability among the trial locations are likely due to planting dates and limited precipitation later in the season. Planting dates were as early as May 18 in Licking County and as late as June 4 in Wayne County. Rainfall during the growing season was variable across our test sites, ranging from 20.0 inches (9.0” below average) at Van Wert in the Northwest region to 35.5 inches (8.9” above average) at Hebron in the Southwestern / Central Region. Averaged across the 9 Ohio Corn Performance Test (OCPT) test sites published, total precipitation was normal when compared to the ten-year average. Heat-unit accumulation was generally greater at OCPT sites in the Southwestern/West Central/Central and Northwestern regions (with heat-unit accumulation ranging from 3,150 to 3,459 GDDs) than sites in the North Central/Northeastern region (3,023 and 3,189 GDDs). Overall, the heat-unit accumulation was 188 GDD’s lower in 2025 when compared to 2024. The yield impact of the dry conditions in August and September was largely dependent on location, planting date and timely scattered rain events.

Access the 2025 Ohio Corn Performance Test results here: https://ohiocroptest.cfaes.osu.edu/corntrials/