Indiana growers will be planting more acres of corn in the coming years in response to demand from the rapidly expanding ethanol industry. With most acres now in a corn/soybean rotation, this shift will cause a corresponding shift in the cropping sequences of many growers so that they will be planting much more corn following corn. Crop budgets routinely estimate that corn after corn falls far short in contribution margins compared to corn after soybeans, mainly due to higher fertilizer and tillage costs, and lower yields. Yet many growers have been raising corn after corn for years and report much lower input costs and a variety of yield results.

A survey of Indiana corn growers was conducted to address the following questions: • Do growers of corn following corn experience the same yield penalties as have been seen in university research? • Is there a difference in yield between 2nd year corn and long-term continuous corn? • What do producers perceive as the risk factors for corn following corn? • What production practices do successful corn following corn producers employ?