The Grandview Corn King
A local farmer turns sagebrush into a record-breaking crop with modern agriculture techniques.
S. D. Cornell of Grandview, Wash., claims to have grown the world’s record production of silage corn on a five and a half acre patch. One acre of the crop was measured and weighed by County Agent A. E. Lovett, who confirmed a total of 57,010 pounds of silage corn, or 28.5 tons. Mr. Cornell moved to this farm in 1916 when the land was still sagebrush. By 1923, through thorough cultivation, irrigation, and the application of 18 tons of manure, he turned the dry scrub land into highly productive soil. County agents suggest this success is a repeatable model for other farmers in the valley.
“The land will produce the crops—good farming is all that is needed.”
Cornell's story highlights the rapid, human-driven transformation of Washington’s arid interior into the agricultural powerhouse it remains today. His method—relying on careful soil management and manure—foreshadows the shift toward intensive farming that defined the Yakima Valley for the next century.
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