12 Inch Row Corn?

This is my 1000th blog post.  I was thinking about a blog highlights post, but this narrow row corn information caught my eye.  

I have blogged on narrow row corn in the past.  While I have seen nothing to consistently indicate a yield advantage, there is certainly no disadvantage.  We have a few customers who have gone as narrow as 15 inch rows.  If you are thinking of a change in your corn harvesting setup, there is no huge reason to go narrow, but no reason not to either.  One reason you might go narrow is to be there when it really takes off. 

There is a certain logic that makes it seem that narrow rows and more spacing between plants within the row should be advantageous.  Last summer, Marion Calmer had a display at the Farm Progress show where he indicated that 12 inch rows might be the way to go.  This summer, he announced in No-Till Farmer that he has built the first 12 inch row head.  He was also the first to build a 15 inch row head.  You gotta respect a forward thinking guy like Calmer.  I am sure that Greg Sauder is already working to make the spacing in those 12 inch rows so that the corn plants are spaced perfectly even.  It is not even a stretch with RTK guidance.   An additional advantage would be that you could use the same planter for both corn and soybeans.