Midwest Crops Face a Challenging Finish
By: Mike Toohill, Consulting Agronomist, AgVenture WSC
August moisture in the Midwest was back to being too heavy for most while large parts of the north and west remain dry heading into September…
In looking at August rains so far, Iowa moisture was the heaviest along the I-80 corridor while the I-74 corridor took the brunt of the rain in Illinois. Eastern Indiana had the most widespread flooding while most of Ohio also got too much rain. Overall, Midwest storms helped the beans while the heavy rains were negative corn in my opinion. More on that later. The below right root zone moisture map indicates where soils are the driest in the top 100 CMs (darkest reds) heading into September.
The biggest dry weather problem areas:
Eastern North and South Dakotas, central and northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and most of Michigan are the reddest on the map. Plenty of July heat in those areas also. Choppers have been or will soon be running corn through in the driest areas with the lightest soils. In the best fields, 200 bushel/acre corn that would have finished with water drops to 120 if it dies at early dent. 200 bushel/acre corn that would have finished with water drops to 176 if it dies from drought stress at 50% milk/starch. Moisture stressed stalks are always questionable. As far as the soybeans, lightest soils in driest areas are most likely to disappoint.
Dry weather areas to watch, southern Illinois, southern Missouri, most of Kansas and eastern Kentucky. Later planted later soybean maturities and double crop beans are most at risk if September is also dry.
Outside of the obvious August flood damage, what are the major corn issues associated with full August rain gauges?
Numerous Anthracnose forms are widespread. The pictures from left to right are Anthracnose leaf blight, top die back and stalk rot. The wet weather in August along with earlier season stresses like N deficiency and heat are leaving many hybrids/fields vulnerable to yield and/or harvest losses. Hybrids with good rating for this disease along with a “brown silk” 3 MOA or leading 2 MOA are fighting off this disease complex the best/longest.
Although most of the nitrogen loss/lack of uptake occurred when soils were saturated for most of June, heavy August rains are making the low N areas of fields even more problematic. Illinois has the most acres affected by this (hundreds of thousands of acres?) but N issues are also very common in eastern and southern Iowa and northern Missouri. Yields will be very low in short, spindly stalked low N areas of fields.
Wind damage also accompanied the heavy rains in many areas. At least in my travels, wind damage in the Corn Belt is most widespread around Bloomington Illinois. Mainly root lodging around Bloomington but green crimp is common in areas affected by tornadic storms.
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