This year’s growing degree days are behind 2008 numbers, and 2008 had a poor corn growing season, so a late harvest of very wet corn is expected again this year.

NDSU Extension Service specialists will share some of what they learned during 2008 in presentations and at their booth at the Big Iron Farm Show at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds near West Fargo.

Ken Hellevang, NDSU Extension Service agricultural engineer and grain drying expert, will give a brief presentation, “Corn Drying Tips: What We Learned in 2008,” at 9:35 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the Red River Farm Network tent just north of the Agriculture Building. Greg Lardy, NDSU Extension beef cattle specialist, will discuss feeding immature corn at 10 a.m.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, at 9:35 a.m., Joel Ransom, NDSU Extension agronomist, will present information on late-season row crop maturity, and at 2:35 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, Hellevang will present ways to reduce corn drying costs.

The NDSU Extension Service also will have information on these topics at its display just inside the east door of the Agriculture Building. Extension specialists will be available to answer questions or discuss these and other topics.

Some of the tips learned during the 2008 corn harvest are:

• Field dry down is slower when corn reaches maturity late in the season due to cooler temperatures. Field drying rates might be about 2 to 3 percentage points per week in October and only about 1 point per week in November.
• Mechanical damage to corn during harvesting increases at moisture contents above about 22 percent. This results in more broken kernels, more breakage during drying and handling, and less increase in test weight during drying. Frequently, test weight did not increase during drying in 2008.
• Corn harvested at higher moisture contents had more foreign material in it, which led to drying and storage problems unless the material was removed.

Hellevang discourages storing corn in bins at moisture contents exceeding 23 percent during the winter. Corn kernels at moisture contents exceeding 24 percent freeze together, which causes unloading problems. Due to the foreign material in the corn, problems occurred when unloading 24 percent moisture corn in 2008.

“Obtain the best energy efficiency in a high-temperature dryer by operating it at the maximum temperature that will not damage the corn,” he advises.

Drying temperature needs to be limited on 25 percent to 30 percent moisture corn to prevent scorching or damaging the corn. The maximum moisture content for natural air drying corn is 21 percent using an airflow rate of at least 1 cubic foot per minute per bushel of corn.

NDSU Agriculture Communication