Corn plants at harvest can still tell you a lot about your planter’s performance, says Jesse Storck, AGCO field product specialist. Plant health and ear size can reflect the environment at the time the seed was put in the ground, such as planting depth, seed spacing and soil conditions, he says.

At the AGCO 2018 Crop Tour in Shelby County last month, Storck and other AGCO specialists encouraged farmers to take note of things like skips, doubles and irregular ears that could be traced back to their...