Jay Young checks Monday for stalk rot in a field of cornat the Throckmorton Purdue Agriculture Center. Young, who is superintendent at Throckmorton, said stalk rot takes place when the corn plant cannibalizes the carbohydrates from the base of the stalk so the plant can finish growing the grain, or ear of corn. / John Terhune/Journal & Courier
A dry spell that hit Indiana in late August took the state’s 2013 corn crop predictions from record breaking to simply better than last year in less than a month.
Now, farmers in the midst of the annual harvest are still dealing with the brief drought as the period of stress could threaten stalk health throughout the Midwest.
With cornfields in potential jeopardy, Purdue Extension agronomist Bob Nielsen is advising growers to take a “triage” approach when deciding which fields to harvest first.
“There are a lot of fields vulnerable to storms, so growers need to prioritize the health of their fields for harvest,” Nielsen said. “When we start harvesting corn in earnest, we need to get the weakest fields out the earliest.”
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