A successful harvest depends not only on crop conditions but also on properly functioning equipment. While you can’t eliminate all harvest losses, you can identify the source and adjust harvest equipment for optimum performance.

Contrary to some studies, dry matter losses after blacklayer are not overwhelming. Still, growers should carefully manage their corn harvest timing to minimize loss altogether.

Grain corn ear molds can lead to yield loss at harvest. If mycotoxins are present, grain may be toxic to animals and ultimately unusable. It’s important to understand environmental conditions that lead to diseases and how those diseases affect grain.

Corn growers often mistakenly correlate test weight (TW) to yield. Understand why the two measures are only marginally related.

Utilizing winter cover crops for hay and corn production allows you to realize soil conservation benefits while increasing dry matter production per acre. Proper cover crop management in the spring can ensure the subsequent corn crop is successful, as well.

Sunflower maturity must be determined to accurately time desiccation and harvest. Applying a desiccant to sunflowers at physiological maturity can help flowers dry down faster, enabling earlier harvest. Desiccating also can help avoid rot issues and reduce the time the crop is vulnerable to birds.

An important part of corn silage production is proper and timely harvest management. Follow these guidelines when harvesting Mycogen^® brand Silage-Specific™ hybrids to be rewarded with corn silage that can help add profit to the bottom line.

Wet and/or humid conditions can lead to black, sooty molds in cornfields at harvest. Sooty molds are species of secondary saprophytic fungi — microorganisms that feed on dead plant material. The presence of these molds can create excessive amounts of black dust when harvesting affected cornfields.

Dry summers and relentless pests increase your corn crop’s susceptibility to aflatoxins, which are harmful to livestock. Reduce your exposure with effective management.

Early frost at harvest can lead to high or uneven moisture, low test weights and increased foreign material. Careful planning and management of drying and storage can help maintain yield.

Many factors contribute to how early frost in the fall will affect corn harvest and the expenses associated with drying and storage. Damage severity will depend on the stage of the crop, the duration of freezing temperatures and subsequent plant damage.

Straight combining is a harvest technique for evenly mature canola, but it requires careful management. Also known as direct-harvesting, this harvesting technique can reduce the risk of windblown swaths and lower the green seed potential. Follow these steps and click here for a video to ensure high yield potential.

Heavy wind and rain late in the growing season can dramatically affect corn. Flooding, downed plants and disease are just a few of the potential management challenges related to extreme weather. Consider your options for recovering as much value as possible and take precautions when storing and feeding damaged corn.

Proper canola harvesting techniques are the final steps to a profitable production season. Timely swathing and combining will produce the highest quality crop with the best yield. If used correctly, straight-cutting canola also can be an option under certain environmental conditions.

Severe drought can cause unsafe levels of nitrates to form in corn plants, especially in the lower stalks. Although precautions during silage harvest can reduce nitrate levels, dairy producers should be cautious when feeding drought-stressed corn silage.

In Midwest alfalfa fields, potato leafhoppers can cause significant problems for alfalfa growers by reducing yield, quality and stand longevity. Scouting alfalfa stands for these pests is crucial to alleviating future headaches.

Summer drought noticeably limits corn silage production by reducing ear size and stalk growth. As few as four consecutive days of visible wilting during vegetative growth can reduce grain or forage yield by as much as 5 to 10 percent. Yield losses of 40 to 50 percent are possible if high temperatures and limited rainfall coincide with silking and reproductive stages.

Historically, sunflower stem weevils have mostly caused sunflower stalk lodging damage. However, in recent years the longhorned beetle also has become a concern. Growers who can identify the problem can escape the financial penalty.