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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 9:38 PM CST
Crop challenges continue with cooler temperatures

Dennis Bowman, University of Illinois Extension

This year’s late planting season and cool temperatures have caused the slowest corn harvest since 1967 and soybean harvest is the latest since 1941.

The good news is that most farmers are reporting very good yields. The bad news is that most of the crop is still standing in the field slowly deteriorating.

Moisture levels are still very wet, causing concern for storage safety. Drying capacity is being put to the test. Illinois is not alone in this situation. All of the states in the upper Corn Belt are facing similar conditions.

We normally recommend that corn be dried down to about 15 percent moisture for safe storage. Most of the corn still in the fields is in the mid-20s. The cold nights and cool days of November don’t provide much heat energy for in-field drying.

Typical November weather only provides enough energy to dry an additional 4 to 5 percentage points. At the first sign of any standability or ear drop problems, the crop should be harvested regardless of moisture.

Corn that is below 23 percent moisture can be “chilled” in storage and dried later. Corn at 22 percent can be stored safely for 60 days if cooled to 40 degrees; if you can take it down below freezing to 30 degrees it will hold for 190 days.

Don’t attempt chilling and freezing with corn above 23 percent. The water in the kernels expanding may damage the kernel and cause kernels to freeze together in “chunks.”

Experts also advise not filling bins too deeply in order to keep airflow rates above 1 to 1.25 cubic feet per minute per bushel. Check with your bin and fan manufacturers to find the ratings and limitations for your situation.

Farmers taking grain to the elevator are being charged a shrink factor. Two things are combined to calculate this.

One is the very real and quantifiable moisture shrink. The elevators buy grain based on the weight that comes across their scales. They don’t want to pay for water that is going to be dried away. Therefore, they calculate an adjustment to get the weight to an equivalent of the industry standard; for corn that is 15 or 15.5 percent.

On top of the moisture shrink they also add a handling shrink. Wetter corn means more drying and more handling. Typically, handling shrink would be less than 1 percent, but with this year’s really wet corn some facilities may push this number higher.

Putting this crop into on-farm storage is going to require that farmers be extra vigilant. Careful monitoring of grain condition and temperature are going to be extremely important.

Remember to be safe when entering grain bins where crusting potential will be very high this year.

Dennis Bowman is an Extension educator, crop systems, for University of Illinois Extension.

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