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Rapid corn dry-down expected this week

A Midwest agronomist says high winds and warmer temperatures could dry down corn up to five percentage points this week. 

Mike Toohill with AgriSompo tells Brownfield conditions appeared late last week in Kansas and Nebraska and are expected to move east through the corn belt, which could result in hidden or mystery yield loss in some fields.

“Hidden or mystery loss is more of a factor in a year like this when the corn dries very rapidly. There is something in maybe the shrink calculation, maybe something in the yield calculation formula or possibly just physical changes in the kernel.”

Toohill says there are some potential positive impacts, like less money spent on drying the crop post-harvest.

“Especially in a year like this when drying rates are up and all of the propane and natural gas we save is more energy that can be put toward keeping people warm this winter.”

He says it could also help prevent any potential bottlenecks at grain elevators since many farms can handle drying lower moisture corn themselves. 

Toohill says dry down won’t be as intense in areas with high humidity from heavy weekend rains, but areas that missed out will likely see rapid dry-down through at least Wednesday.