Yes some going on here. Looked at a field awhile ago and the corn was stating to black layer, in the poor spots.
Farmers: Anyone chopping corn already?
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I have some 102 day corn in good ground that hit black layer and i expect the farmer will be taking it out in two weeks or less. And as it looks now ding some pop counts and pulling ears looks to be close to 180 bu corn maybe better. I think in areas we're going to be shocked and then others complete loss. We are planning that harvest will starting one month early. Corn will probably be done before they start on beans in a lot of our area.
As fast as things are happening the good 112 day corn will start to black layer late next week. I wouldnt be suprised if we are picking corn in 3 weeks. There is good corn around here also on the good dirt. But there is also going to be some bad corn. Soil type is part of the bad yields but there are other issues at play also.
Does the early harvest mean we will be able to use farming as an excuse for poor attendence earlier in the season this year?
180 really......Did you split the ear to see how big the kernals were? My guess is this year it will take 30 to 50% more kernals to make a bushel. Hate to think where test weights are going to be. My other fear is alpha toxins.
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Where was this at. With as bad as things have been in areas that seems low for a field average.
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During the severe drought in western Iowa in 1974, I remember running the haybine with an Oliver 88 in the middle of July and putting the corn in windrows and chopping it that way, with the hay head. A lot of it was tasseling between just a foot to three or so high, and clogged up the corn head as a result.
If I recall correctly the estimated yields were like 5, 10, or 15 bushels to the acre (or even less, a lot or mostly zero).
I had cool new AM radio headphones and remember big hits from that summer like Sundown and Midnight at the Oasis and Locomotion, and relatively recent but still highly popular songs like American Woman, among many others. They also still played a Beatles hit or three every hour yet at that time.
From that year:
Omaha.com : The hottest jobs in town
PS. Our corn was for silage in the first place.
If I recall correctly the estimated yields were like 5, 10, or 15 bushels to the acre (or even less, a lot or mostly zero).
I had cool new AM radio headphones and remember big hits from that summer like Sundown and Midnight at the Oasis and Locomotion, and relatively recent but still highly popular songs like American Woman, among many others. They also still played a Beatles hit or three every hour yet at that time.
From that year:
Omaha.com : The hottest jobs in town
PS. Our corn was for silage in the first place.
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I haven't seen any signs of A. flavus which causes Aflatoxin at this point but that is no promise that we won't see some.I'm just not finding any as of yet. As far as kernel depth i would say the size is pretty typical , but test weights worry me some but last year they were great and i didn't expect that. Above the ear plant health has been good up to this point. I'm concerned about lodging again this year though.
Not much of a farmer anymore but this drought is really bad. My dad, who farmed in the 70s-90s, said that 1977 was the worst he has every seen, so far. When the crop adjuster came out to see his corn crop that year he gave it a .7 bu/acre just because he needed to write something down. That was the year he raised zero corn crop.
Crazy how bad some areas are. I fell sorry for all the farmers out there.
Crazy how bad some areas are. I fell sorry for all the farmers out there.
We made one round to make sure everything worked. Starting hard on Monday. Some of our corn didn't put any ear on at all. We live North of New Hampton(NE Iowa) and it is extremely bad, like nothing I've ever seen.
Chopped over 200 acres of drought corn averaging 0.7 b/acre in 1977 here in central Iowa. I just do not see the cattle or the facilities to feed as much silage as people are talking about. This is not 1980 and the price of feeders is shocking. I can only imagine some city boy banker being asked to loan fort knox for some silage to folks who have not fed cattle for half a generation. Like to be a fly on the wall in those conversations.
More power to those who know what they are doing.
More power to those who know what they are doing.
Good luck to you guys, feel for you. Cut it high, like 2.5 feet to miss much of the concentrated nitrates. Test the silage before and as feeding. But know that it feeds like gold. The sugars are still in the stalk and the ruminate can digest them. The stuff is amazing feed, even, or especially without ears.