Do Corn and Soybean Growers Need to be Worried About Recent Dry Conditions?

Now is the time to understand the impact of drought on small grain crops.

Early development of corn and soybean has been affected by drought. Meanwhile, small grains have been enduring drought in some way for most of the season, from a mild but prolonged drought in the spring to the most recent severe drought affecting many fields at the flowering and grain filling stages.

Extension plant pathologist Alyssa Collins provides this summary of drought effects we have observed on small grains so far, and expectations for this harvest season in light of the drought.

In Pennsylvania, for each wheat or barley seed planted, we typically get an average of two to three tillers (including the main shoot) bearing a harvestable head. However, this year’s fields look thinner than usual, with many plants having only one head.

Timely planted fields experienced generally good fall conditions and exhibited more than three well-developed tillers per plant by early spring.

However, the dry weather that followed the end of tillering and continued through most of the stem elongation stages likely triggered competition between tillers and impaired head development in the youngest tillers.

Unproductive tillers can be seen in the lower canopy of many fields. Late planted fields may have been additionally limited in overall tiller production.

Regardless of the cause, these thinner stands may result in less uniform head ripening and leave fields more vulnerable to late weed pressure.





Source: lancasterfarming.com

Photo Credit: istock-fotokostic