Innovations Report: Midwest corn-growers produce three times more corn today than they did a half-century ago. After finding that farmers also sow seeds around two weeks earlier now than 30 years ago, Chris Kucharik, a scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, set out to discover if earlier plantings – and, thus, longer growing seasons – have contributed to the jump in production. In a study published online today (Feb. 27) in the Agronomy Journal, …