Georgia corn growers need to mark their Corn Checkoff ballots
and put them in the
mail before the March 2 deadline.

Only farmers vote on the program, which supports corn
research, education and marketing
efforts in Georgia. But the Corn Checkoff affects everyone
in the state, not just farmers,
said a University of
Georgia scientist.

Benefits of
research

“We aren’t making any more land, and our farmers are having to feed more people.” ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ — Tommy Irvin

“Through corn research, education and promotion,
everyone benefits,” said Dewey
Lee, an Extension
Service agronomist with the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“Corn is a $75 million dollar business here,” Lee
said. “It affects corn
farmers and also the processors and livestock industry,
right on down to the people who
buy meats at the grocery store.”

The Corn Checkoff program provides a way for farmers to
pay for research that will
directly benefit them. Lee said Checkoff dollars funded
almost all of the UGA corn
research over the past three years.

Some of the latest studies
include:

• Testing transgenic and value-added hybrids for yield
  in Georgia.
• Creating hybrids that are resistant to disease and
  insects.
• Testing new insecticides and herbicides to improve
  efficiency.
• Developing new techniques to manage twin-row planting
  to get the best yields.
• Creating new irrigation recommendations.
• Controlling insects in stored corn.

Research funding benefits all
Georgians

“The
farmers support this research with dollars from their
crop, knowing the results will
directly benefit them,” said Georgia Commissioner of
Agriculture Tommy
Irvin. “In turn, that will keep them
in business and keep the communities they spend their
dollars in alive.”

Irvin said of all crops, corn shows most clearly the
benefits of research. Past
hybridization research by U.S. scientists has raised
yields from 40 bushels per acre to
more than 250.

Current research in Georgia, funded mostly by Checkoff
dollars, will help farmers here
grow more corn on fewer acres.

“We aren’t making any more land, and our farmers are
having to feed more
people,” he said. “The research funded by these dollars
will help us feed them
more efficiently. We have to do (this research) well. And
we have to do it now.”

Lee reminds farmers that returning their marked
Checkoff ballot is an important way to
voice their opinions about funding research.