The average corn yield last year in McLean County was nearly 247 bushels per acre. That's enough to blow the minds of the grandfathers of today's farmers. Agriculture has changed nearly beyond recognition in less than a century.
“The 100 Bushel Corn Club is a program open to all farmers in McLean County. It doesn’t matter what present corn yields are now, all farmers are urged to join the club,” wrote Eugene Mossbacher, McLean County Farm Advisor, in 1952.
The first 100 bushel per acre corn yield in McLean County happened in 1931 at the GJ Mecherle experimental farm east of Bloomington. It was on a test plot, and McLean County Museum of History Librarian Bill Kemp said it happened only with very "energetic" efforts to get to the 100-bushel plateau. Most farmers couldn't dream of attaining that yield for several more decades.
Eugene Mossbacher was the farm advisor from 1947-1983.
“That's two years after the end of World War Two all the way up to 1983 when Ronald Reagan was in his first term as president. So, he spans a significant, important period in corn belt farming,” said Kemp.
By the early 1950s, the 100-bushel goal was still formidable but possible. One reason it became achievable was the post-World War II boom in fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. The post war boom in fertilizer use came out of repurposing explosives munitions. Nitrates are a key ingredient in explosives. Emerging agribusiness giants began aggressively marketing the heavy use of commercial fertilizers, said Kemp. Mossbacher formed the club with an eye to boosting yields.
“Recently, I have had some questions from people asking if the club is for those people who are interested in applying large amounts of fertilizers. You do not need to apply a lot of expensive plant food. In the final analysis, the 100 Bushel Corn Club is a sound land-use program involving adoption of good crop rotation, application of plant food according to soil testing, necessary drainage, selection of the right kind of seed, proper cultivation, good weed control and careful harvesting,” wrote Mossbacher.
The club held meetings before planting, during the growing season, and after harvest, to review results to help people become better farmers. Producers who met the 100-bushel goal received a certificate. One is on display at the McLean County Museum of History’s “Farming the Great Corn Belt” exhibit. Mossbacher emphasized the program was educational and not a contest.
“Members had to keep detailed records, had to include their field maps, had to include soil treatment reports and all of that so they could, the following year, determine what they could do better,” said Kemp.
Fertilizer was not the only changing ag practice in that era as industrial farming took off.
The tractor was introduced in the 1910s and 1920s, but other mechanization came later.
“The corn picker becomes ubiquitous in the period immediately after World War II, and then that's followed by combines. People tend to forget that, generally speaking, corn was picked by hand through the Great Depression,” said Kemp.
So, called miracle pesticides also came into wide use, such as DDT to combat the corn borer.
“Mossbacher, though certainly a man of his time, stressed soil fertility, asking farmers, are you getting back what you are taking out? That is, it's a two-way street, right? So, he was a big proponent, for example, of legumes, clover to fix nutrients into the soil. He embraced modern agriculture, but recognized nature's complexity,” said Kemp. “He would say ‘slapping on fertilizer is not enough to ensure good yields,’” said kemp.
“Farming today is a big business. And every business must have a plan. In order to grow 100 bushels of corn, a plan must be put into effect to control erosion and improve soil fertility. Soil building takes time,” said Mossbacher.
In its first year, nine members of the club reached the 100-bushel mark. In 1954 only two did so, Kemp noted. Six of the nine in the first year were tenant farmers, and both in the second year were tenants. In 1954, the two were Newell Henderson of Stanford and Merle Keuhling of Arrowsmith.
“Which speaks to the high rate of tenancy in McLean County, which really begins in the early pioneer period and continues today,” said Kemp.
By the late 1950s the club is inactive, a victim of its own success as the average yield grew, though the average yield for the entire county did not pass 100 bushels of corn until 1962, though today that might seem 'quaint,'" said Kemp.
McHistory is a co-production of WGLT and the McLean County Museum of History.
