Heavy Rains Halt Harvest Threaten Corn Stand
Over the weekend Parke County received 3 inches of rain, Montgomery County over 2 inches, and other west central Indiana counties saw similar totals. This has brought the harvest in this area to a halt, says Eric Hinds with DuPont Pioneer. He said, until the rains came, the pace of harvest was good and dry down was progressing, “Especially some of the earlier hybrids are getting down into the 18% to 20% range. Even some of the 110 day hybrids were down to around 22%.” He added that, while the rains will slow dry down, he does not think there will be much more drying anyway.
With only an estimated 25% of the corn in this area harvested, Hinds worries about how much longer some of the crop can stand, “I have seen this year the existence of crown rot. This is something we do not see very often, but with the wet soils and low levels of sunlight we are seeing a lot more this season.” He said this is going to jeopardize the standability of some fields, “I am concerned about the standability of some fields since the harvest is now on hold for at least week.”
His recommendation is that growers take this week to evaluate their fields, “If they scout themselves or if they work with their Pioneer sales rep, growers should evaluate their fields for harvest and determine what fields need to be done first.” Soybean harvest in this part of the state is well advanced, and yields have been reported as outstanding.
Listen to the complete report from west central Indiana on the agronomy page.