Silage continues to wait

Checked the plots again today since the research team is ready to get started on harvest. It still is hanging around the 30-31% D.M. We are sitting right around 2400-2500 growing degree days (GDD) according to Pa Pipe. This puts us about 100 days behind average. This would explain why we are seeing things so slow to mature around the area.

Other observations in the corn plot

Just a quick note of some other observations in the corn plot this morning. The corn overall is very impressive with nice sized ears and good height. I noted that milkline has begun to move on some varieties, however, as noted the total plant moisture has not changed. I also noticed a fair amount of grey leaf spot in the plot, however this will have little to no affect on the plant at this stage. It seems around the county in general we are set to have a great crop this year. Even much of the late corn planted is looking great especially after Friday's rain. Hopefully we will get some real nice corn silage put up so we can make the milk roll once prices return and help fill in the gaps created by this price slump.

Corn Silage Dry Down Slows

I tested the PDMP plot again this morning and it appears our 1in. + rain on Friday has slowed us down a bit. The plot tested at 31% D.M. which is the same figure as Friday a.m. prior to the rain. This combined with an overcast day with some drizzle on Saturday seems to be holding the dry down off for a bit. The U.S. Weather Service is calling for cooler temperatures the begining of the weak with no precip. Hopefully low humidity and clear skies will help the corn to dry down again. I'll keep an eye on the silage plot and will have another posting on moisture on Friday if not before. Just in review this plot was planted on April 29th so you may want to adjust accordingly for your planting dates.

Corn Silage Dry Down

I sampled the PDMP plot this morning and I got a result of 31% dry down. That means in the last 4 days it has changed 6%, or 1.5% per day. In all honesty I thought it may be a little faster then that, however if this trend continues we are looking at harvest to start in another 5-6 days. This seems late for typical harvest, however we have had a cooler than normal growing season, so our degree days haven't mounted as fast as typical.

Other observations this morning was that most of the corn was at dent, however very little to any milk line was present.