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We’re still trying to solve the case of the missing ears.

Kyle Stackhouse 2

September 22, 2022

2 Min Read
9-22-22 stackhouse.jpg
If you zoom in on this photo you will see a stalk with no ear. Kyle Stackhouse

Corn is crawling toward the finish line. I thought by now we would be going full bore on the early maturing hybrids, but that is not the case. We gave it a go on Monday only to find moistures in the low 30’s. We had hoped to find them around 25%.

Since Monday, we have poked around in some other fields but the result has been pretty much the same. We will have to choose some corn to pick somewhere as we have some contracts due by the end of next week that have a pretty good premium attached to them.

Unfortunately, the weather pattern is not going to be conducive to getting the corn to dry in the field. It will take time.

Evaluating hybrids

While poking around in fields we are doing a better job evaluating corn hybrids, noting good and bad. In one hybrid we noticed some of the plants didn’t look the same as others. While most of them are green above the ear, these off-types were dead all the way to the top. Since this is our first year of GMO corn in quite a while, it took some time to figure out that the off-types are likely the blender corn used for the refuge requirement.

Upon further evaluation, those dead plants blanked and did not produce an ear. I’ve asked the seed company to come out and take a look. I’ve also asked what the blender corn is for that hybrid. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. Refuge is blended at 5% in this particular hybrid, so if that is the answer, then it is costing 5% of the yield too.

Related:A new, innovative corn weed control solution for 2023

The slow start has allowed us to continue working on repairs and updates. There are always things that pop up during start up that we had forgot about. This year is no exception. We had to level the head pulley on the wet grain leg because the belt would not run true and it was rubbing. We found out the fines sucker on the back of the dryer had rusted out. Other projects continue in preparation for post-harvest activities, such as tillage or seeding cover crops.

Everyone be safe out there!

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