Brownstown farmer Taylor Wischmeier earned first-place state yield awards in the 2018 National Corn Growers Association National Corn Yield Contest.

The 2019 Commodity Classic was from Feb. 28 to March 2 in Orlando, Florida, with an awards banquet and private concert featuring country music duo Brothers Osborne.

According to a news release, Wischmeier was recognized as one of the top-yielding corn producers in the nation with DEKALB DKC66-75RIB Brand Blend corn, yielding an impressive 297.73 bushels per acre in the No-Till/Strip-Till Irrigated category.

The contest, currently in its 53rd year, challenges farmers to achieve record-setting yields as part of its search for methods that will help farmers everywhere. It’s the association’s most popular program with this year’s event producing 7,258 entries.

In the 2018 contest, DEKALB farmers captured nine of the 18 national awards and 164 first-, second- and third-place awards at the state level with 32 yielding more than 300 bushels per acre.