Drought
Missouri Farmer Discovers Startling Reality of Drought: Entire Cornfields Never Pollinated This Year
Drought is creating a dreary outlook for Missouri farmers, but it wasn’t until mid-July that some realized just how bad it was. Farmers in pockets of severe drought now say they have widespread pollination problems.
Farmers can use humidity charts for their area to assess when the disease could hit their corn crop as well as the optimum time to make a fungicide application, says Missy Bauer, Farm Journal Associate Field Agronomist.
With heat forecast to top 100 degrees in places, combined with the expectation for little to no rain, crop conditions could deteriorate and the biggest risk in the western and central Corn Belt.
Despite rains the last couple of weeks in parts of the Corn Belt the latest drought monitor shows drought continues to grip a huge part of the Midwest, including Nebraska>
In eastern Kansas and Missouri, harvest is happening at a historic pace, but western Kansas is overcome by so much rain that winter wheat fields are now overgrown by weeds making those fields unharvestable.
The National Drought Mitigation Center estimates 67% of corn and 60% of soybeans are still considered to be in drought, a slight improvement from last week when drought covered 70% of corn and 63% of soybeans.
Flattened corn can often recover, stand and produce decent yields. Soybeans can shake off a storm and flourish, but beware spider mites in the next 10 days if temperatures stay 85-plus degrees with low humidity.
Hurricane-force winds swept from northern Missouri and Iowa all the way east to Illinois and Indiana. The derecho brought wind gusts up to 100 mph, flattening cornfields, but it also drenched soils with crucial rains.
Cover crops, reduced tillage and a simple water infiltration test help Adam Chappell capture and hold water and nutrients.
Even with rains sweeping the Northern Corn Belt last weekend, the latest drought monitor shows drought continues to spread across Illinois with D2 (Severe Drought) taking a 28-point jump in a week.