Corn production well off

Do not know of other areas but not seeing any reality of good in corn here. A few friends and contacts been pulling sample ears as stalks dry down, silks are mostly dried up, a few never pollinated and remain white with the stalk dead, shucked ears tell the true story.
For four counties around us ears are 1/2 -2/3 filled out, kernels are small and already deep dimpled, one sample tested at 27% moisture where estimations on fields that generated 210-240 b/a just a few years ago MIGHT make 150 this go, as well will be docked for small grain size and poor grade outs. Several are considering letting beef onto the fields as a feed out as will not regain the costs to harvest where insurance will not pay anything.

Our area observed 10.7” of rains in the month of July alone (July 6-20th) !!
What does that mean? If your corn pollinated towards the earlier timing (end of June & up til July 6th), it probably did ok & may exhibit good kernel development?
But if it pollinated during that heavy rainy period, lots of pollen grains could have been washed out of tassel &/or washed off ear silks, thus leading to No or very poor kernel development.
Corn tassels usually only shed pollen from 10~12am til 6pm? each day.
And good Viable pollen only lives about 12 hours? Also if your area experienced a drought prior to & during pollination, dry/hotter air temps could damage pollen production within the tassel, rendering it sterile? If so, any amount being shed is pointless.
To further complicate, ear silks are made up of 90% water. So any drought conditions could also limit silk growth.
IF,,, a field has no or reduced soil compaction that could enable good deep (5-8’?) corn root growth? Then, healthier plant’s roots may be tapped into lower ground water which may enable normal silk growth even during a drought?

Edited by AC7060IL - 30 Aug 2025 at 11:47am

planted BEANS here this year... First time in about 8 years..

Around here too , but the $$$$ are low,,,

Everything that could have gone wrong with early corn happened around here. Too much rain, then no rain at fill. And tassel disease with a little tar spot on top. The late corn (after 20june) looks better but if we get an early frost, it doomed. I have been growing more bmr sudan sorghum for silage. A little less yield but a lot less imputs. I add some dried beet pulp at the blower if its too wet. With corn at 4 dollars a bushel and max yield here at 150 bushels per acre, i think long and hard about just buying feed

jvin248 wrote: . Seems like a lot of the hybrid/GMO seed supply was geared for drought and then we get a lot of rain... .

Co-op manager in bear camp with us says that is quite common. this along with a few other maladies. He believes the yields will be much lower than predicted

I'm in an area of irrigated specialty crops and farm small fields the bto guys don't want. My corn will probably make 125 and the beans 35-40. Good corn for me is 150 and beans 40. My ground is pretty sandy with some clay mixed in but nowhere enough. Also have some gravely hills to go with some beach sand. I've had around 3" of rain since pollination and we've had more 90 degree days than usual. I hope you all have a safe and successful harvest.

The rain will probably start also

Lars(wi) wrote: There is a couple ongoing discussions over on LinkedIn, regarding the commodities prices going into harvest. General consensus is #2 yellow corn will average $3.90 per bu, with the average farmer ‘losing’ .85 cents per bushel. If my Jethro Bodine rithmatic is correct, that’s puts the average production cost per bushel of corn at $4.75+/-, this is insane.

Carrying onward, production estimate is 16.7 billion bushels. Losing $.85 per bushel, collectively $14.195 billion lost.

Yeah something doesn’t add up. I don’t think farmers are quite that big of idiots.

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I picked a few ears where husks were dried down. Counted kernels and plugged in the estimate calculator. 250-300bu/ac! Lol. I have a lot of variability out there and still a lot of green. A while before I can harvest it all and get a real count.

I planted a 50/50 mix of Reid's yellow dent and Jimmy Red, heirlooms, non-gmo.
Working at building a higher protein seed, 3-4x protein of modern corn seed.

No rust, no tar spot.

No inputs. No till. Regen ag techniques.

I expect a lot lower actual yield, but it was fun to see the calculator estimate number.


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Edited by jvin248 - 12 Sep 2025 at 7:55pm

Also depends of the Docks after Probed.

DMiller wrote: Also depends of the Docks after Probed.

Unless you’re a complete careless moron, dockage should be minimal. Though up here, the wrong type of fall weather can leave you with high moisture and that can really add up.

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The farm I grew up on was sold by the family back in the 1960s because no crop could pay the taxes, let alone "$10k" financing.

It sold three or four times after that until it sprouted condos.

That's the problem if you have a farm just beyond where the sidewalk ends.

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Edited by jvin248 - 13 Sep 2025 at 3:18pm

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When you look at buying land, of COURSE if you borrow the money you will not profit. But if you have the money, you’re good. You bought yourself a real, tangible, generally appreciating asset. If you can make money over the cost of inputs, compare that to leaving it in the bank earning a couple percent interest. Have cash flow over cost of inputs, asset appreciates, equity increases, improves balance sheet. Those who pursue this become the” big guy” everyone bitches about. The Norman Rockwell days were over a long time ago.