Farmers Worried Strong Winds Will Blow Corn Over

Our area is in a wind advisory today with 45-mile-an-hour wind gusts possible. Farmers are hoping that the "possible" in the forecast means that maybe the winds will not be quite that strong! This is the last thing farmers need as we are trying to harvest a crop that has been a struggle right from the spring. It has been a very difficult growing season.

The major concern is that strong winds will lodge or blow the corn stalks over which will make harvesting the down corn very difficult. If just a few stalks are blown over and not right on the ground you can get the point of the corn head under the stalk and pull it into the head. It the stalk is right on the ground it is impossible to harvest it. In addition, if a lot of the corn is blown over it will bunch up on the head and not feed into the combine. Just ask any farmer that had their corn blown over by the tornadoes about their harvest last year.

Compounding the high winds is many agronomists were concerned about stalk quality this year. Because of all the rain, cloudy and cool weather, it was ideal conditions for stalk rots caused by fungus. Plus much of the corn has shallow roots because of the saturated soil conditions much of the growing season. Let's hope the winds are more like 30 miles an hour and not 40 or 45!