It is very noticeable that Wednesday’s storms and high winds caused significant cases of wind blown and bent corn all over the area. But as Tom Fricke from the Vermilion County Farm Bureau points out; this early in the game, at least it was mostly stalks “bending over” and not “snapping off.”
Audio PlayerAUDIO: At this stage of the growing season, if it didn’t snap off; generally the corn will stand itself back up. There may be a little bit of a bend in the stalk, but generally, it’s young enough; it will stand itself back up and continue to grow.
On the other hand, corn bent by high winds later in the growing season can definitely mean trouble.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: If it was broken off or snapped off, then you’re going to have some yield loss. And given the size of the corn now, it would be very difficult to go in and replant any areas; unless you had wide spread wipeout in certain pockets of the fields.
As far as the high heat coming over the weekend; Fricke says that’s what growing corn craves, although usually later in the game.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: It’s not going to be as critical as if it was during pollination stage; so the heat always makes the corn grow, so we should see a bit growth spurt in the corn in the next week.
Fricke said sweet corn growers may have taken on higher damage from Wednesday’s storms, especially to their early plantings; which are usually done ahead of the field corn plantings.
