Harvest Wet and Dry the Grain

Harvest corn wet and plan to dry it in the bin. The delayed maturity, cooler temperatures and wet weather will make field-drying very difficult this season. In addition, ears are heavy (a good thing) but waiting a long time for field-drying increases the chances for those heavy ears to pull stalks over. The wet conditions also provide a favorable envrionment for stalk rots and progession of ear diseases. With all of these things going against field-drying, the better option is to plan to harvest the corn wet.

Corn harvest can begin when grain moisture approaches 25 percent. Corn grain should be dried to market moistures (usually 15.5% for field corn and 14.0 % for food grade corn) or to 13 percent if corn will be stored throughout the summer.

For excellent resources on grain bins, drying grain, storing grain, etc. visit the University of Kentucky Grain Storage website operated by Dr. Sam McNeill.