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Farmer questions if corn has enough time before harvest

A West Michigan farmer says recent rains have been beneficial for crops heading into harvest.

Matt Lubbers tells Brownfield, “We went through a very prolonged drought this spring and that has caused a lot of variability out in those fields, some of the stuff looks better from the road.”  “But once you get down there, we are still seeing some of the effects of what that dry spring caused in some of these row crops,” he says.

He’s concerned the crop won’t dry down enough to be harvested in the coming weeks.

“Can we get this corn specifically to black layer, to maturity before killing frost comes?” he questions.  “If we can get it to mature, we’ll be okay. If we get a killing frost before we hit maturity, that’s where we’re going to see some major issues with harvestability.”

Lubbers says rain has caused disease issues in his soybeans, but he’s surprised there’s not much tar spot pressure. 

He is expecting silage harvest to ramp up in the area this week with soybean harvest beginning by the end of the month.