When Henry A. Wallace introduced his high-yielding hybrid “Copper Cross” corn seed in the late 1920s, it wasn’t just a new seed—it was the start of a new era in farming, changing what farmers could expect from their crops.
A few years later, as drought and dust storms devastated farms across the Midwest, Pioneer 307 gave farmers another reason to keep planting. In 1936, nearly 30% of Iowa’s corn acres failed, making the search for better-performing hybrids more important than ever.
Fast forward nearly 100 years, and the work continues. Pioneer is still breeding corn hybrids, still studying what makes plants perform, and still looking for ways to help farmers get more from every acre.
On this episode of Outstanding in Your Field, Bryan Schrader, Carl Joern and Crystal Williams sit down with Pioneer’s resident historian Lance Gibson to explore the story behind Copper Cross and the milestones that helped shape both Pioneer and modern agriculture.
Dig deeper into Pioneer’s history: https://www.corteva.com/products-and-services/seeds/pioneer100.html
Learn more about Henry Wallace: https://www.farmprogress.com/names-in-the-news/how-henry-a-wallace-sowed-seeds-of-success