By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

AMES, Iowa — When forecasting field conditions for the upcoming harvest regarding how farmers would deal with drying their corn, one Iowa State University (ISU) grain expert said he predicted about two months ago that the state would have soggy fields.

“It looks like now we’re going to have wet corn again this year,” said Charles Hurburgh, ISU professor of agricultural and bio-systems engineering, and professor-in-charge at the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative. “It’s another high-moisture harvest.”

In fact, July’s record cold snap that moved into Iowa and parts of the Midwest didn’t help much either since those cool temperatures had already severely delayed tasseling.

“We’re 65 days between tasseling and black layer,” Hurburgh said in early August. “Judging by when the state was 50 percent tasseled, come September, we’re going to have average black layer.”

With 51 years of farming behind him, Central City, Iowa corn grower Larry Jons said this year’s record bumper crop the USDA recently forecast for the state is looking good for drying – despite the wet field conditions leading up to harvest.

“It’s looking to be a good harvest,” said Jons, 69, who started farming when he was 18 years old on land his dad purchased in 1941. “I don’t see any problems coming up.”

But even with that prediction, Jons is among many other Iowa corn growers who have been mentally sketching out more efficient ways to dry their corn once it’s harvested.

“They’re not going to start harvesting corn at 30 percent moisture,” he said, “but ‘we’re going to wait until the moisture is 25 percent or less.”

But if farmers don’t get enough heat units to black-layer the corn, Jons said it’ll still be very wet this fall.

“If the corn gets black-layered by Oct. 5, then I think it will be good for field drying,” he said. “I [then] look for the cost of drying to be between $.02 to $.05 cents per point of moisture depending on how wet the corn is when you start.”

Jons said if he and his fellow farmers move their grain out in winter, they could get by with drying it down to 15 percent moisture.

“If you want to store your grain until summer sales, then you need to dry the corn down to 13.5 percent moisture,” he said.

However, Hurburgh said very wet corn that is 15 percent or higher in moisture should be dried immediately.

“Any corn that has had any signs at all of heating or mold should be moved as soon as possible; the situation will only get worse,”
he said

Hurburgh said he would also counsel farmers not to over-dry their corn going into fall.

“What farmers do the first few days after harvest is most important,” he said. “If you don’t get it cool right away, it starts to heat and it will be a problem for the rest of the time you own it.”
With spring planting starting earlier this year, Jons said the corn should dry down in the field better.

But with the loss of heat units this summer, Jons said he’s not sure if it would dry down in time.

“If corn gets to 18 percent in the field, you can dry it with just air,” he said. “With LP being about $.75 per gallon cheaper than last year, it shouldn’t cost as much to dry the corn down.

“If corn doesn’t get black-layered, you can’t dry it down and store it because it will pick up moisture and ruin a bin,” he added.

If corn moisture out in the field is 18 percent, Hurburgh said air drying would work, assuming there’s enough air flow to prevent mold.

“Unfortunately, last fall, we didn’t have any air flow and the corn was wet – and still is wet,” he said.

What’s more, with the record crop predicted for this fall, storage will also be another issue that farmers will have to address – especially with damaged corn carryover from 2008’s wet corn crop that’s still sitting in bins, Hurburgh added.

“Typically, we haven’t had much drying to do until last year,” he said. “Drying capacity at farms and elevators weren’t expanded because people built for storage and not for drying capacity.”

In fact, Jons, who’s already downsized his 130 acres of corn and rented out his 7,000-gallon storage bin to a neighbor, said he’s not going to have much corn this year.

“Around here, [storage] is going to be a problem because we have an awfully good looking crop coming up,” he said.

As a result, if 2009 corn has to be dried quickly for storage, Hurburgh advised farmers against blending it with last year’s stored corn.

“Move the 2008 corn and replace it with a better-quality 2009 crop,” he said. “If this cannot be done, use great selectivity about which 2008 corn to keep.”