Farmers: Anyone chopping corn already?

00clone

Well-Known Member
Apr 12, 2011
19,661
602
113
Iowa City area
Heard someone mention the possibility of farmers starting to just chop their corn for silage because of the drought, then saw a news story about the same.

Was curious if anyone's pulling the plug for the year and where they are farming.
 
I heard from a couple farmers that the corn can't even be used for silage because it's too dry and has too many nitrates in it.
 
Ive seen a couple fields chopped up here in MN. The corn right next to pne of the chopped fields was 6 feet tall and had one lousy ear per stalk.
 
Heard someone mention the possibility of farmers starting to just chop their corn for silage because of the drought, then saw a news story about the same.

Was curious if anyone's pulling the plug for the year and where they are farming.

My family's custom harvest business is in full swing chopping corn in southeast Iowa starting this week.
 
Haven't seen it yet in Eastern Iowa, but in order to do it you need to add lime and let it ensile. It can't be feed straight out due to high nitrate levels in the stalk, an effect due to the drought.

Crop does not look as terrible as a I originally thought, but the true test will be in the combine.
 
Around Greenfield, there has been some chopping done. Some of it was too dry this week.

Had the agronomist out last night looking at stuff, we are guessing a total farm average yield around 120-130. Probably going to be running corn by Labor Day.
 
Pretty much every field that isn't irrigated in Nebraska is being chopped now or has already been chopped.
 
I have two growers that i do agronomy business with and they will be probably taking a couple fields out late next week depending when we get the nitrate test back and know how low we can cut the corn at. And the only reason they are taking this corn out for silage is because this varieties didn't hold up in this kind of conditions and didn't hardly put out any ears. And this is north of the Ames area 20-30 miles.
 
I have two growers that i do agronomy business with and they will be probably taking a couple fields out late next week depending when we get the nitrate test back and know how low we can cut the corn at. And the only reason they are taking this corn out for silage is because this varieties didn't hold up in this kind of conditions and didn't hardly put out any ears. And this is north of the Ames area 20-30 miles.
Was that a Monsanto brand?
 
The big thing I can see in the fields now is how you can tell exactly the soil types by looking at the corn now. There is a huge difference in the good dirt versus average dirt. I could probably almost draw soil maps by looking at the corn, and I bet they would be extremely close to how they actually are.
 
The corn looks all brown by Elkhorn NE near Omaha. Not much happening good. Soybeans are still green for now.
 

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