Are you harvesting high-moisture corn this fall, and did that same corn experience significant foliar disease pressure? If the variable conditions crop scouts noted on Farm Journal’s Pro Farmer Crop Tour hold true for most of the Corn Belt, then the answer to both of those questions is likely “yes” — and that means you will need to adjust your harvest workflow.
Here are some tips and technologies to help get this crop off as efficiently and stress-free as possible, and then keep it in good condition until you’re ready to sell it:
Plan For Success
The first shift you need to consider is the sequence in which you harvest your fields. If you have a field that was inundated with higher disease pressure than others, and the crop is still standing, you want to prioritize that one over fields where the visual symptoms of disease pressure are not as widespread.
Related: Maximize Soybean Yields — Harvesting This Week Could Be Key
“It’s just [a matter of] expediting the process and getting that infected field harvested quicker than what you had anticipated, which a lot of times comes with higher moisture corn,” says Tyler Kilfoil, digital bin manager, AGI.
Calibrate Yield Monitors
Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie is worried some farmers might “get into depressed mode” and skip over yield monitor calibrations this fall. Even if yields appear to be below your expectations, Ferrie says these yield maps will be valuable in the years to come. So, get that yield monitor calibrated.
“Even if the yield [data] is depressing, get a good spatial calibration on that yield monitor for both beans and corn,” Ferrie says. “So, when we sit back and the combine is in the shed, we can go through all this data, and it’ll help us make some decisions.”
This year’s data could be particularly useful because it has been such a difficult year, agronomically speaking.
“There’ll be things that show up [in the data] that you don’t see every year, and those yield maps are going to be key,” he says. “That’s the data we need. [It’s] going to help you make decisions not only next year, but for years after.”
Combine Automation Can Help
Once you have a game plan for attacking your fall harvest and your yield monitor is set, there are new tools within some combines that can help manage variability from field to field.
If you’re running a new John Deere combine (model year 2025 and up), consider using Predictive Ground Speed Automation (PGSA) and Harvest Settings Automation this fall, says John Deere combine specialist Tim Ford.
Related: 5 Yield-Saving Combine Adjustments For Touch-And-Go Fall Harvest
PGSA is a sensing technology that serves as another set of eyes for the combine operator, scanning the crop continuously 28' ahead of the corn head. It reads crop height, biomass and can even detect downed crops. It will speed up where it sees lighter biomass and slow down and take its time in higher biomass.
Harvest Settings Automation works in a similar fashion. The operator sets acceptable levels of grain loss in the combine controller, and then sensors within the machine will read the crop ahead and adjust things like header height and speed to make sure the combine harvests within your set parameters.
“These two systems act as a teammate. We’re not taking the operator out of the cab. We’re using sensors, data and technology to take a heavy burden off the operator and put it on the automation,” Ford says.
Bin Ready? Set It And Forget It
Once the crop is off, AGI’s Kilfoil says the next decision is figuring out what to do with it.
“If it was high moisture when you picked it, that involves getting it down to a proper storage [moisture] level, maybe even running it through an eco-dryer to pull the moisture out of the corn,” he says. “From there, the final landing place is in the bin.”
Once you have this highly variable crop dried down and nestled in the bin, you need visibility into how the grain itself takes to storage conditions, all while keeping a close eye on weather conditions outside the bin, too. That’s where a grain bin monitoring system with automation can pay off — freeing up your time and attention while the system does the checking for you. And it’s just safer than manually checking bins.
“Grain bin monitoring technology is your eyes inside your bank account,” Kilfoil says. “For guys who aren’t typically used to shelling higher moisture corn and storing higher moisture corn, a product like AGI’s Bin Manager lets you sleep in peace at night. It gives you eyes inside the bin, and it’s going to fully automate your system and help with that [storage] process and decision making.”
Your next read: How Pro Farmer 2025 Crop Estimates Compare and Contrast With USDA Expectations
More harvest 2025 content:
- Focus On Stalk Quality To Maximize Harvest Results
- Ken Ferrie: Scale Carts Are An Important Backup For Yield Monitors
- Last-Ditch Fungicide Application In Corn Could Save Yield, Prevent Harvest Headaches
- Is the U.S. Corn and Soybean Crop Getting Smaller?
- $8 Soybeans? That’s the Reality for Some Farmers as China Remains Absent From Buying
