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Agronomist says many corn stalks are weak

An agronomist with Pioneer says the corn stalks are getting weaker every day.  Arika Wech tells Brownfield the long, dry stretch of weather prevented potassium uptake in the plants, and a lot of corn is one weather event from falling down. “Rain, you know, making that soil loose but also, the unpredictability with winds. I mean, you never know.”

Wech says she has been seeing a lot of barely-standing corn over the past week or two. “When I’m out in the fields right now doing a push test, for six out of ten plants to go down with very minimal pressure to the base of that corn stalk, so definitely still a concern and if you could get it off, I would.”

Weather forecasts in her home area of southern Wisconsin call for rain, so harvesting the most vulnerable corn fields now will get the most yield in the bin.