Post Harvest Agronomy Review
Dec 02, 2024
Mike Tufte
Seed Specialist
The 2024 growing season will go down as one we’ll never forget. Planting started off with a bang in early April. We were only given a few days to get some seeds in the ground before the rains came. They came and didn’t seem to want to leave. Our Key Cooperative Agronomy team looked at a record number of fields regarding replants. Some were in dire need of a fresh start. Other fields were affected, but the decision was made to leave the stands alone. Planting dragged on for months and nobody knew what to expect.
Over the course of the early growing season, several areas were hit by hail, high winds, and some even had tornadoes. The wind didn’t seem to want to stop blowing, either. Many were ready to throw in the towel. We definitely faced an array of challenges, but, for the most part, timely rain continued to come our way.
As we walked through corn fields, we were impressed with plant health and cob formation. Kernel counts were better than we expected. Pollination hit at just the right time, where we didn’t have to deal with any really high temperatures. Meanwhile, the timely rain continued.
Mother Nature finally decided to shut the rain off as we approached grainfill timing. At that point, we had enough to get us through the remainder of the season. To the surprise of many, yields were nothing to complain about in the majority of our footprint. I recall turning on the 5:00 a.m. news and hearing the anchor claim that Iowa was set up to see the third highest corn harvest we had ever seen. I had to step back and think, are we really looking at that great of a crop? Time will tell when the combines roll.
With harvest underway, the reports were coming in. The yield was good. The test was great. Moisture…moisture was teetering on the edge of comfort for me. The plants looked good, but grain moisture was on the lower end of spectrum. Corn was drying down (on average) 1.33 points per day. Something happened that I have never seen before; we had sub-10 percent corn coming across the scale. It didn’t matter what location you were at; corn was drier than normal.
I started thinking about it and speaking with other agronomists so we could try and understand how this was happening. I think we need to understand dry-down of corn before we can make an educated explanation. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and revisit photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis can be broken down into two categories: C3 and C4 pathways. Corn is one of the few that belong to the C4 pathway family. What makes these C4 plants different than the rest is that they are able to store their carbon dioxide before turning it into sugars. This makes the corn plant more efficient at utilizing water, especially during times of heat and drought, if they had the moisture to get them to grain fill. C4 plants also have very high rates of photosynthesis - look at all the green leafy tissue that catches sunlight!
During photosynthesis, the plant brings carbon dioxide and water in from the air and soil. The magic elves in the plant then transform the water into oxygen that is released, and the carbon dioxide turns into glucose that the plant will utilize to fill the kernel. As the kernels continue to fill with those sugars, they are simultaneously losing moisture. Once we reach physiological maturity, the photosynthesis slows down drastically, but it does not necessarily stop altogether. What if our corn plant had plenty of moisture reserves and was just storing up those sugars? Could it be said that as long as it’s still undergoing photosynthesis, the plant would continue pushing those sugars, which would continue the dry-down process? This would also explain the test weights we saw. If you recall, all we need to perform photosynthesis is carbon dioxide, water, light…and a healthy plant. We had all those ingredients. Especially in areas where a split Nitrogen application was applied.
So, we understand that plants utilize photosynthesis to dry down. This happens every year, though. That doesn’t explain the unusually dry corn. There was more to it this year. Look back at the fall we had. The days were warm, and the nights didn’t cool down much. We had days upon days of both sun and wind. This was probably the first fall that I could bear the humidity. It was lower than normal. It was just consistently warm, sunny, windy, and dry. That’s a perfect formula for drying corn.
To top it off, more and more acres were sprayed with a quality fungicide this year (which I HIGHLY recommend). This kept our plants healthy, and we didn’t really see the early senescing. They stayed green and continued to respire longer. Again, a healthy breathing plant will perform to its optimum potential! The plant slowly sucked moisture from the kernel for a longer period of time. Then, when it was time, they died and dried rapidly.
Newer genetics may also have something to do with it. We are seeing more and more hybrids that are bred with an emphasis on rapid dry-down. This allows us to push the maturity envelope a little bit further which could unlock more yield potential. Because of this, we see more “die-and-dry” hybrids. Combining all these factors can add up to a prime drying scenario.
In a nutshell, we had a better-than-expected harvest. Given the year we were thrown, the yields and test weights were spectacular here in central Iowa. We learned a lot and saw a glimpse of what appears to be the seven-year drought coming to an end. It wasn’t a perfect year, but collectively as a whole, it looked like the Garden of Eden.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact Mike Tufte or your Key Cooperative agronomist to plan ahead for your 2025 crop.
Seed Specialist
What led to the low moisture percentages and this year's unusually dry corn?
The 2024 growing season will go down as one we’ll never forget. Planting started off with a bang in early April. We were only given a few days to get some seeds in the ground before the rains came. They came and didn’t seem to want to leave. Our Key Cooperative Agronomy team looked at a record number of fields regarding replants. Some were in dire need of a fresh start. Other fields were affected, but the decision was made to leave the stands alone. Planting dragged on for months and nobody knew what to expect.
Over the course of the early growing season, several areas were hit by hail, high winds, and some even had tornadoes. The wind didn’t seem to want to stop blowing, either. Many were ready to throw in the towel. We definitely faced an array of challenges, but, for the most part, timely rain continued to come our way.
As we walked through corn fields, we were impressed with plant health and cob formation. Kernel counts were better than we expected. Pollination hit at just the right time, where we didn’t have to deal with any really high temperatures. Meanwhile, the timely rain continued.
Mother Nature finally decided to shut the rain off as we approached grainfill timing. At that point, we had enough to get us through the remainder of the season. To the surprise of many, yields were nothing to complain about in the majority of our footprint. I recall turning on the 5:00 a.m. news and hearing the anchor claim that Iowa was set up to see the third highest corn harvest we had ever seen. I had to step back and think, are we really looking at that great of a crop? Time will tell when the combines roll.
With harvest underway, the reports were coming in. The yield was good. The test was great. Moisture…moisture was teetering on the edge of comfort for me. The plants looked good, but grain moisture was on the lower end of spectrum. Corn was drying down (on average) 1.33 points per day. Something happened that I have never seen before; we had sub-10 percent corn coming across the scale. It didn’t matter what location you were at; corn was drier than normal.
I started thinking about it and speaking with other agronomists so we could try and understand how this was happening. I think we need to understand dry-down of corn before we can make an educated explanation. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and revisit photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis can be broken down into two categories: C3 and C4 pathways. Corn is one of the few that belong to the C4 pathway family. What makes these C4 plants different than the rest is that they are able to store their carbon dioxide before turning it into sugars. This makes the corn plant more efficient at utilizing water, especially during times of heat and drought, if they had the moisture to get them to grain fill. C4 plants also have very high rates of photosynthesis - look at all the green leafy tissue that catches sunlight!
During photosynthesis, the plant brings carbon dioxide and water in from the air and soil. The magic elves in the plant then transform the water into oxygen that is released, and the carbon dioxide turns into glucose that the plant will utilize to fill the kernel. As the kernels continue to fill with those sugars, they are simultaneously losing moisture. Once we reach physiological maturity, the photosynthesis slows down drastically, but it does not necessarily stop altogether. What if our corn plant had plenty of moisture reserves and was just storing up those sugars? Could it be said that as long as it’s still undergoing photosynthesis, the plant would continue pushing those sugars, which would continue the dry-down process? This would also explain the test weights we saw. If you recall, all we need to perform photosynthesis is carbon dioxide, water, light…and a healthy plant. We had all those ingredients. Especially in areas where a split Nitrogen application was applied.
So, we understand that plants utilize photosynthesis to dry down. This happens every year, though. That doesn’t explain the unusually dry corn. There was more to it this year. Look back at the fall we had. The days were warm, and the nights didn’t cool down much. We had days upon days of both sun and wind. This was probably the first fall that I could bear the humidity. It was lower than normal. It was just consistently warm, sunny, windy, and dry. That’s a perfect formula for drying corn.
To top it off, more and more acres were sprayed with a quality fungicide this year (which I HIGHLY recommend). This kept our plants healthy, and we didn’t really see the early senescing. They stayed green and continued to respire longer. Again, a healthy breathing plant will perform to its optimum potential! The plant slowly sucked moisture from the kernel for a longer period of time. Then, when it was time, they died and dried rapidly.
Newer genetics may also have something to do with it. We are seeing more and more hybrids that are bred with an emphasis on rapid dry-down. This allows us to push the maturity envelope a little bit further which could unlock more yield potential. Because of this, we see more “die-and-dry” hybrids. Combining all these factors can add up to a prime drying scenario.
In a nutshell, we had a better-than-expected harvest. Given the year we were thrown, the yields and test weights were spectacular here in central Iowa. We learned a lot and saw a glimpse of what appears to be the seven-year drought coming to an end. It wasn’t a perfect year, but collectively as a whole, it looked like the Garden of Eden.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Contact Mike Tufte or your Key Cooperative agronomist to plan ahead for your 2025 crop.