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GFMM desk: According to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, 84% of corn in North Dakota had reached full dent on Oct. 6, which likely will result in corn with a test weight of 50 to 53 pounds per bushel and a moisture content of 35% to 45%, according to Ken Hellevang, North Dakota State University agricultural engineer and grain drying expert.
Only about 22% of the corn had reached maturity on that date, and that corn probably will have a test weight of about 56 pounds per bushel and a moisture content of about 30%.
“It is important to check each field because these values will vary depending on planting date, corn maturity rating and growing degree days during the year,” Hellevang says.
“For the 18 states producing the majority of the corn in the U.S., only 58 percent of the corn was mature on Oct. 6.
The amount of drying in the field depends on parameters such as corn maturity, hybrid, moisture content, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and wind speed.
Corn growing degree days have been used to predict the rate of field drying, but they do not consider all the drying parameters. Another predictor of the drying rate is potential evapotranspiration (PET), which is based on parameters similar to those that affect drying.
Values for PET are available on the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network website at http://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu.
About 1 inch of potential evapotranspiration results in about 4 percentage points of corn field drying.
Standing corn in the field may dry about 2.5 percentage points per week in North Dakota during October, assuming normal weather conditions, and about 1 percentage point per week during November.
Corn at 35% moisture content on Oct. 11 might be expected to dry to about 27% by Nov. 1 and about 22% by Dec. 1, Hellevang says.
Therefore, corn moisture content at harvest likely will be in the mid-20% range this year.
The current forecast is for the minimum temperature to be in the 20s in the western portion of the Dakotas and Nebraska on Oct. 11 and below freezing for the Dakotas and Nebraska on Oct. 12, but Minnesota and Iowa are forecast to stay just above freezing.
The Oct. 14-18 temperature is predicted to be much below normal across the Corn Belt, with a tendency for above-normal precipitation for Oct. 16-22.
“If these forecasts are accurate, the amount of field drying will be reduced,” Hellevang cautions.
Iowa State University has a field dry-down model that may be helpful. Do an internet search for Iowa Corn dry down calculator.
It estimates that if corn is at 35% moisture on Oct.11, it will, on average, dry to about 22% on Oct. 30.
Field drying normally is more economical until mid to late October in North Dakota and mechanical high-temperature drying normally is more economical after that, Hellevang notes.
Field drying is extremely slow during winter months and corn will dry only to about 20% moisture content based on the equilibrium moisture content for average monthly air temperature and relative humidity conditions in North Dakota.
Corn that remains in the field during the winter may dry from 25% to 30% moisture in November to 17% to 20% when harvested in February and early March.
Corn losses will depend on stalk strength, ear shank attachment to the stalk, winter conditions and wildlife.
Accumulated winter snow adds water to the soil as it melts. Plus, standing corn shades the ground, which reduces drying and may lead to wet fields in the spring, so consider harvesting the corn before the ground thaws. Read more…
Source: Online/SZK
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