The KingFisher and Red Tail brands were developed for livestock producers who want better efficiency from the corn they’re feeding, with emphasis placed higher than industry averages for fiber and starch digestibility. The companies (Byron Seeds, King’s AgriSeeds, Southeast AgriSeeds) that bring you the KingFisher and Red Tail brands developed a testing program that ensures that only the top-feeding hybrids within the industry end up in a KingFisher or Red Tail bag.
Our rigorous testing program starts off with access to a large selection of corn genetics within the industry from multiple suppliers. We then place these hybrids in multiple plot locations
in multiple states, managed by our own staff. Hybrids then go through a multiyear selection process where yield, silage/grain quality, and agronomic observations are compared to hybrids that we have set as cornerstones in our current lineup. If a hybrid meets all the qualifications set forth by the KingFisher Corn Committee, it usually becomes part of the KingFisher and Red Tail corn lineup.
The process used to advance hybrids into the KingFisher and Red Tail lineup starts with communicating with our genetic suppliers on our hybrid needs. We take the recommended hybrids from each provider and place them into our own advancement plots where each hybrid is screened for the attributes listed
above. Each hybrid goes through this process for an average of three years in similar locations and soil conditions. We then look at each hybrid’s yearly averages along with the three-year average and compare the results with our cornerstone (check) hybrids that are already in the lineup.
The KingFisher team feels it’s important to test each hybrid under our own protocols alongside the protocols used by the genetic providers to ensure that only the best of the best make it into the lineup. Although we test some of the top genetics within the corn industry, sometimes these hybrids perform very well in agronomics and grain yield but fall short on fiber digestibility or starch digestibility, and silage yield. So we don’t advance them into the lineup. It also happens the other way: We find hybrids that have very high fiber and starch digestibility but are very prone to leaf and stalk diseases along with only average plot yields.
The KingFisher Corn Committee has passed over several hundred excellent hybrids since the KingFisher and Red Tail program was developed to bring only the best hybrids for fiber digestion, starch digestion, solid digestion agronomics, and good yields for silage and grain to livestock producers. So livestock producers can be assured that the KingFisher and Red Tail lineup is elite silage corn.
