Comparison of Models in Assessing Relationship of Corn Yield with Plant Height Measured during Early- to Mid-Season

Relationship of corn (Zea mays L.) yield with plant height measured during early- to mid-season may possess the potential to be used to develop algorithms for guiding variable-rate N applications within a field. This study evaluated the performance of the linear, quadratic, square root, logarithmic, and exponential models in assessing the relationship of corn yield with plant height measured at three growth stages and four cropping systems for three years. The determination coefficient (R2) values of these five models were generally similar at each growth stage within each cropping system and year or within each cropping system on the three-year combined data. Our results suggest that all these models could be used to describe the relationship of corn yield with plant height during early- to mid-season under different cropping systems and weather conditions, but the linear model may be the preferred model because of its simplicity.