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Agronomist says farmers will need to prioritize fields at harvest following hot, dry weather

A DEKALB/Asgrow technical agronomist says the heat dome that sat over much of the Corn Belt recently changed the direction of this year’s corn crop.

Randy Niver, who is based in east central Illinois, says originally there were concerns that the corn harvest would be late and need a lot of dry down.  But, he says, the heat took a lot of that concern off for farmers.  “And the heat that is coming is going to make it go even faster,” he says.  “We are going to have some of those products that are early-season products or a die-and-dry type of product that is going to be ready before we know it.”

He tells Brownfield there is concern that early-season weather set the stage for fusarium crown rot to develop.  “Once it infects the plant early-season, the type of conditions that we have this fall with the hot and dry weather – those are the conditions that allow fusarium to take over and deteriorate the base of that stalk,” he says.  

Niver says fusarium crown rot will show up as ghosted crops in corn fields where sporadic brown stalks mixed in among lush, green corn stands.  

Brownfield interviewed Niver at the 2023 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, IL

AUDIO: Randy Niver, DEKALB/Asgrow