Wind, disease, and wet conditions creating Ohio corn harvest concerns

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An Ohio-based agronomist says early season weather challenges are impacting corn standability this fall.

James Morris with Dekalb ASGROW says stalk quality issues are starting to show up in early planted corn.

“These cool wet soils got wet and stayed wet,” he says. “You’re going to see some hybrids that are laying down. Either that plant was putting everything into that ear that it had to give, or what we’ve seen in a lot of cases, some red crown rot starting to show up. We’re starting to lose some of that stock integrity due to disease and then wind flow on top of that.”

He tells Brownfield it was the wettest August on record for the state.

“We had areas that had seven inches of rain and other areas that just had an inch five miles apart,” he says. “We had some severe tornados with forty-mile per hour winds. We saw more damage out of those storms from the wind side of it and the rapid growth we saw during that time than what we really did from the rainfall.”

Morris says farmers should be scouting fields ahead of harvest and prioritize ones that show signs of lodging.

AUDIO: James Morris, Dekalb ASGROW