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AgriGold agronomist urges farmers to watch moisture levels

AgriGold’s agronomy division manager says farmers should keep a close eye on corn moisture and field conditions to protect yields.

John Brien says dry conditions across the Eastern Corn Belt are causing corn to dry down quickly.

“The longer that grain sits out there, the longer those ear molds can affect that grain, lowering our quality, and maybe even lowering our ability to take that to an end user,” he says. “We tend to see more shelling at the head as those ears hit those deck plates. We can then have shattering, and we lose some kernels there.”

He tells Brownfield stalk quality is also a concern.

“Doing a simple push test and see how many of those don’t come back,” he says. “If you have a significant amount on one particular hybrid, that would be one that I would definitely try to harvest sooner rather than later.”

Brien says monitoring hybrid performance and crop variability at harvest could help farmers make their seed selections for the 2026 crop year.

AUDIO: John Brien, AgriGold