Expect To See Varied Reactions In Fields That Struggle
Symptoms you see may not indicate what is really in the soil.
Tom Bechman
Published: Jul 23, 2012
Hopefully you're getting all the water you need in terms of rain or irrigation and you will have healthy plants with well-filled ears. That will be the case for some of you. However, many of you, especially in the central Corn Belt, are likely to run into some symptoms and situations not seen since the drought of '88. For Illinois, there was a drought just a few years back, but not to the severity of this year's event so far.
Here are some things to watch for.
Barren stalks- Even where fields look fairly normal in height and have ears that emerged when they should have, the excessive heat took its toll. Dave Nanda, plant breeder and director of genetics and technology for Seed Consultants, Inc., says that he has noticed four or more barren plants in 1/1000th acre. That's 4 ears you won't get. Each ear per 1/1000th acre is generally worth around 7 bushels per acre in a normal year.
Soil type matters- Wherever the soil type went light and droughty in this field, corn height dropped three feet. Variation by soil type- If you have two distinct soil types in one field, especially if the soil type affects water-holding capacity, you may have two distinctly different fields of corn in the same field. Lower ground and wetter soils, the kind that often flood most years, may have the best corn this year. Best could be relative unless widespread rain returns soon. Tongues of soil that has less water holding capacity will stand out because the plants will be much smaller and have stressed out early.
Poor ear tip fill- This is a problem anytime it is hot and dry during grain fill. It could be a bigger problem this year if some of the ear tip, the last to pollinate, didn't pollinate in the first place. Much of the loss of kernels at the tip is usually due to ear tip abortion. This time it may be due to lack of fertilization and ear tip kernel abortion both.
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Tagged: Drought, Corn Belt
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