Low maintenance corn planting

These past two years, driving along the local roads, I've noticed corn crops planted several kilometers away. I've never seen these crops irrigated, so that should be a good sign. But given how fast they grow and how few weeds are prsent compared to my own plantings, I suspect that the ground has been prepared and fertilised.

This year I've planted two varieties sourced from Koanga. The goal is to not water or weed. I have not fertilised the soil. Nor did I dig it over. It's just open paddock, cleared of grass. A pointy implement was poked into the ground, a narrow hole made, and seedlings were dropped in and then the soil around them compressed. Note that there are chickens running unfenced around the paddock.

This is the painted mountain corn at time of planting:

This is the painted mountain corn in the last week or so:

This is the bloody butcher corn at time of planting:

This is the bloody butcher corn in the last week or so:

The Bloody Butcher variety is obviously a better plant for a minimal work crop. But it's not just because the weeds aren't as tall or vigorous around them. Even before the weeds were more than 10cm high around either, the Bloody Butcher still looked this consistent and had none if any plants die off. The Painted Mountain was already poor and had multiple die offs at that stage, and gives an even poorer showing now.