Unseasonably warmer than normal temperatures to finish the last two weeks of August could play a role in impacting crops.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Dan Bjorklund shares his thoughts on what the weather has done to corn and soybeans in the latter half of August.

“You look at how the green went out of the corn fields and the soybean fields, we just almost ‘flash dried.’ It just was not normal. We know it takes so much time and takes so many heat units to get to maturity, and when you speed it up it’s got to come at the expense of what’s going into the grain. And I think that goes back to seed size on soybeans, and kernel depth and weight on the corn, and it’s going to impact (the) final yield.”        

Bjorklund says because the clock has been sped up, some farmers should prepare for a possible early harvest.

“We’ll go out on a field by field basis and we’ll do the “push test” where you’re pushing ten plants in a row and if they all knick over at the nods towards the soil line, and you’ve got a high percentage of that, I want to schedule that field to be combined relatively soon because obviously, the standability is going out of it.”  

Bjorklund adds if corn stalks bounce back from the “push test” then an early harvest wouldn’t be as much of a concern.