2025 November Stewardship Advocate

The Genomes to Fields Initiative 

The concept of genotype by environment (GxE) interaction has puzzled plant breeders and farmers alike for decades. Said another way, why does a corn hybrid perform differently from one year to the next or from one county to an adjacent county? This interaction is significant because it influences traits like grain yield, standability and disease resistance, making the selection of high-yielding and stable-across-locations hybrids an endless challenge for corn breeders. Because the environmental variation is so great, even in a small geographic area, corn breeders conduct extensive testing of pre-commercial hybrids to get a sense of how they may perform once they are made available to farmers. 

The Genomes to Fields (G2F) initiative was established to better understand GxE interactions and to study how corn genes played a role in performance across environments. The initial concept for Genomes to Fields was developed in 2013. Since then, the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) has invested significant human and financial resources to get this initiative off the ground and ensure it continues to be successful.   

This public-private partnership builds on publicly funded corn genome sequencing projects to develop approaches to understand the functions of corn genes and specific alleles across environments. The Iowa Corn Growers Association was instrumental in securing the initial funding to sequence the corn genome in 2009. G2F began four years later.     Since 2014, G2F has evaluated approximately 180,000 field plots involving more than 2500 corn hybrid varieties across 162 unique environments in North America. This makes it the largest public corn hybrid testing effort ever done. The G2F relies on a consistent set of traits to measure at each site each year in order to analyze the role of environments on these traits. These traits are shown in Table 1.   

Table 1. Core corn traits measured at each G2F testing site. 

Iowa Corn and the National Corn Growers Association are lead partners in G2F in collaboration with the academic and federal institutions shown in Figure 1. Both organizations have contributed several million dollars to G2F during the last 10 years to help fund the creation of hybrid seed, conducting field testing at 15 sites across the U.S., and analyzing the data. 

Figure 1. Map of academic and federal institutions involved in the G2F research project.

The GxE data from the initiative is utilized by plant breeders around the world to 1) understand the genetic control of important traits, 2) determine the role of environments on gene expression and 3) make better predictions of how hybrids will perform at specific locations and across locations.

An example of how the G2F data is used began in 2022, when G2F hosted the first open-to-the-public Genomes to Fields initiative Genotype by Environment prediction competition. In this event, competitors used a large data set including genomic variation, phenotype and weather measurements, and field management notes gathered by the project over nine years. The competition attracted registrants from around the world in a variety of scientific disciplines. The teams applied varied methods and strategies, providing a wealth of modeling knowledge based on a common dataset. The winner’s strategy involved two models combining machine learning and traditional breeding tools. This shows that while AI and machine learning are important to understanding corn genetics, they are most useful when paired with time-tested traditional plant breeding methods. This is another example of corn breeding being both an art and a science.

Source: Genomes to Fields

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Kevin Smith has been farming in Marion and surrounding Iowa counties for more than 30 years. He farms with his dad, brother and son on this multi-generational farm. They have a corn-soybean rotation where they variable rate their 110 -118 maturity corn hybrids from 29,000 seeds per acre to 36,000 seeds per acre on their more productive ground.

Kevin’s passion for his soil is evident by his commitment to no-tilling all of his acres and installing terraces and waterways in his hillier fields. He variable rates his fall nitrogen fertilizer and then side-dresses nitrogen in June when the corn is knee-high to ensure adequate nitrogen is available during this rapid growth phase. The Smiths also plant a rye cover crop ahead of a portion of their soybeans.

The Smith family has always realized that protecting and improving their soil is the foundation of being high achieving corn producers and keeping it healthy is the key to sustainable production in the future. Kevin says, “We take extreme pride in preserving the soil, improving soil health and strategically fertilizing the crops throughout the season. By doing that in the past and in the present, we can ensure that next generation can continue to be successful. I have worked my entire life farming and working for the family business, which has its challenges, but in the end, you can always count on family to be there and want the same end result. I hope that I have passed these values on to my son, just as my dad did for me. My son is involved in the operation now and I am confident he will carry on with the operation well into the future.”

In addition to the farming operation, Kevin is carrying on the family legacy of Smith Fertilizer and Grain, a full-service provider of fertilizer, feed and grain receiving that his grandparents founded in 1972 in Marion County that has grown to seven sites in south central Iowa. They also have a construction and tiling business where they install pattern tile, build ponds and terraces, and do land conservation work. In this family business, Kevin serves a dual role as the farm and construction manager.

Despite the more than full-time job in the farming and contraction businesses, Kevin is an active member of Iowa Corn where he serves on the Iowa Corn Growers Association board of directors representing District 8 in south central Iowa. He also serves on a local corn board as well as an Iowa Corn committee. When asked about what he wants others to know about his farm, he says, “I’ve farmed for my entire adult life, and despite the ups and downs, there is no more fulfilling profession than farming the land.”

Upcoming Events:

December 4: Exploring the Impacts of Residue Management on Crop Yield and Fertilizer Inputs Iowa Learning Farms

December 12: Iowa Nutrient Research Center webinar series; Valley of Death is Easier with Partners (Key Learnings from RegenPGC, and Where We Go Next) Fall 2025 Water Quality Seminar: Regional Collaborative Research

Throughout December: Calendar | Iowa State University Extension and Outreach

Throughout December: Iowa Learning Farm webinars; Events