News

Yield loss potential in corn

Indiana has been on the receiving end of abundant weekly rainfalls over the last month.  Purdue Extension corn specialist Bob Nielsen says the rainfall and saturated soils are preventing farmers from side-dressing corn and herbicide applications.  “These are additional challenges and frustrations that come along when we get into weeks of rain like we’ve had in some areas,” he says.  “That’s going to continue to be a challenge until these fields dry out and with the prospect of rain over the next couple of days, it appears we’re not going to dry out very quickly.”

Nielsen tells Brownfield that means weeds in some fields are going to get out of control.  “They’re going to be more difficult to control with herbicides,” he says.  “We could see some yield loss there because of that early competition.  Then there are fields where the bulk of nitrogen was targeted to be side-dressed and that’s going to risk some nitrogen deficiency before that nitrogen actually gets put on the corn.”

Nielsen says with the kind of rains we’ve had, it’s difficult to determine whether farmers could still have good yield potential or they are looking at significant yield losses.

AUDIO: Bob Nielsen, Yield Loss in Corn (1:10mp3)