Why would a corn field be cut 3-4 ft high?

Factual Questions
61

I was able to delete the second copy for you.

62

Thank you!

63

I am not a farmer but I spent 20 years working in agriculture I learned about corn production. This is confusing, so I’ll try to break it down into many steps"

  • When corn matures (when it forms the “black ring”) it has a kernel moisture of 20% or more
  • That’s way too wet to store without spoilage; grain elevators and direct buyers want the corn at around 14-15% - more than that and they reduce the price per bushel they’ll pay.
  • Drying the crop requires heated air circulation, which costs money, so the grower would prefer to leave the corn on the stalk in the field, to dry out naturally
  • But the longer you leave the stalks standing, the more they dry out, become brittle and are vulnerable to being blown over in a wind, attacked by insects or just plain falling over when they can’t support the weight of the ears anymore
  • And the later you get in the year the more uncooperative the weather gets, to the point where a rainy autumn may make the fields too muddy to get the equipment in there (the largest rotary combines weigh more than 50,000 lbs. empty, so they obviously need firm ground to run on)

As you can see, there are a lot of factors that come into play for a farmer. Do I harvest early and pay for enough propane or natural gas and electricity to run the dryer? Do I take my chances that the weather anywhere from late September to early November will stay good enough long enough for me to let the corn stay in the field and dry down naturally? Did I sign a contract to deliver X number of bushels by a certain date, even if the weather turned bad? Is this year a record harvest with storage at a premium, and the later I harvest the more I’ll have to pay, and will the cash price for my uncontracted crop be above or below what I forecast last spring? Last but not least, when is the prroduction loan I took out for this year’s crop due to be repaid?

In other words, there are just too many variables for an outsider to make an intelligent guess. Furthermore, the impact of any one of those factors in eastern Minnesota could be entirely different from what’s happening in central Iowa.

64

Well, this is obviously not true. They’re both in the Midwest! So all the weather conditions are the same for the whole region. That’s just common sense.

/s - just to make sure there are no misunderstandings.