Corn Dry Down Rates in Late Fall and Winter Mike
Rankin Leaving corn in the field in hopes that moisture levels will subside and drying costs won't eat-up production margins may seem like a good practice in theory, but the longer corn stays out in the field, the more subject it is to lodging or ear drop. It also can delay or eliminate any hopes of getting fall tillage done in a timely manner, especially if the weather turns ugly. Corn simply doesn't lose much moisture past about November 1st. This was demonstrated in a 1992-93 Wisconsin study where corn grain moisture was monitored throughout the fall and winter months (Table 1). In this study, corn lost about 10 percentage units of moisture during the month of October but only 2 percentage units were lost during November. This trend held true across four planting dates and subsequent grain moisture levels.
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