Crop Update

Corn

The earliest corn at NWRC, a 106 day hybrid planted April 11, had the milk line 1/2 way down the kernel on Aug. 31. This progress is very similar to last year, but 2 weeks or more behind 2006 and 2007. Last year the earliest corn was harvested Oct. 9 around 20% moisture. Harvest of the earliest corn at 20-22% in 2006 and 2007 was Sept.18 and 13, respectively.
There may be more interest in the history with later planting dates, since much of the corn in our area was planted the 1st week of May or later. Corn planted May 7, 2007 was harvested Sept. 21 at ~21%. A similar planting date in 2008 was harvested Oct. 16 at ~20%. Corn planted the 1st week of May this year will probably be harvested the middle of October, similar to 2008. What may have made harvest in 2008 seem so late is that the harvest in 2007 was one of our earlier harvests.

There may be more interest in the development of corn at our last planting date (May 28) than there has been in previous years. Due to soil conditions, there were a number of acres planted that late or later this year. Last year, this late planted corn was at 25% when harvested Oct. 16. After having most of the growing season cooler than normal last year, September was close to average and October was above average. This review of recent history suggests it may be mid-October before corn harvest really gets going, but Growing Degree Days (GDD) accumulated in September and October will influence that date.

There is more leaf disease at the ear leaf and above than has been seen for several years. This is true especially if the corn hybrids don’t have good resistant to leaf diseases, or didn’t have fungicide applied. The plots with fungicide treatments have visibly less disease than the check plots. Yield data will confirm if the fungicide was a good investment.

Areas of fields with any manner of N shortage are really becoming visible. In many of these areas the corn looked good until the last week or so, when it appears to have started running out of N. Stalk quality may become an issue due to the lack of N and the other stresses this crop has been dealing with this season. Checking stalk quality may help prioritize which fields to harvest first to avoid dealing with down corn.

Soybeans

Lagging development of the soybean crop is similar to corn, though probably not as far behind. This is probably because soybean development related to day length. As shown in Table 1, early planting date does not necessarily result in early maturity, nor does GDD accumulated from planting through August. Nor does having the best combination of early planting date and more GDD necessarily guarantee early harvest ( 2005 vs. 2006), but it does help. Having a later planting date with fewer GDD does seem to lend itself towards a later harvest. The combination of planting date and GDD for 2009 does seem to indicate a later harvest, but maybe not as late as 2003, for example. The weather the next few weeks will help determine if we are a little later than average or significantly later. Stay tuned.