Harvest is wrapping up with corn, some canola and sunflowers left to go. Fieldwork is in full swing with farmers getting as much done as possible in these warmer than seasonal temperatures before the traditional cold, wet October shows itself.
Applied Research Specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Scott Chalmers, says they had some surprises in their field test plots near Melita, specifically with the corn that dried down rather quickly.
"What surprised us the most is how quickly it dried down on us. We were expecting to harvest in the early 20% range for moisture but a couple of weekends ago, our land cooperator called and said it was about 18% moisture, so we got out there a week later and we were combining our plots ranging from 13% moisture, which is dry, to about 20%."
Chalmers says they saw a large amount of lodging and ear drop in their corn plots, depending on the variety.
"So, we took that data, and we'll make sure that the farmers get to hear that date because that's very important," he adds. "If you can imagine losing 30 bu/acre because of ear drop or lodging in your corn and multiply that across a thousand acres at $5 a bushel, that's a hefty sum of money. That's basically the gravy what farmers are looking for, is that final 30 bushel to pay themselves."
Their upcoming seed guide will be sharing the data on those varieties that performed very well, how long were the cobs, which varieties stood up straight during the two major windstorms.
"This data is something we can build on with our research, to find out what varieties put up with a lot of that extreme weather.
More recently the WADO team was harvesting their sunflower variety trials, "and there were definitely winners and losers in that too. Some fell down because they were too tall," explains Chalmers. "Others were prone to bird damage. Just depending on their physiology, how they grew. Others did very good. We're just going to be processing those numbers and hopefully they hit the seed guide. I have a deadline by the end of the month so I should be able to make that."
Please listen to more with Scott Chalmers as he shares on the corn crop of 2024, and more on ear drop below!