News

Consider short-season corn varieties after May 25th

 

An extension agent says it’s about time to plant a shorter season corn variety.  Monroe County, Wisconsin agent Bill Halfman tells Brownfield it’s almost too late for normal varieties to mature in time.  “It’s kind of our general rule of thumb that if we were unable to get the corn planted somewhere around the 20th, the 25th of May, then we need to be looking at a shorter-season hybrid.”

Halfman says the right corn variety depends on what farmers plan to use it for.  “The higher moisture at harvest time and the cost to dry that down is kind of what we’re really looking at. Of course, if we’re looking at harvesting it for silage or high-moisture corn, that’s not as critical as if we’re looking at harvesting it for dry corn.”

Halfman says with low commodity prices, farmers won’t want to spend money drying corn since that cuts into their already-thin margins.  “Keeping corn from one year to the next year is very risky on germination.  Over time, it does go down, so ideally we would try to exchange it for a shorter one if at all possible.”

Halfman tells Brownfield his area in west central Wisconsin has a variety of soil types, and some farmers are still unable to get into fields.  He says others did plant on time, but are now evaluating their fields for possible replanting.