Time To Check Corn’s Moisture For Silage Use – AG Matters

Footballs are beginning to fly and schools are back in session in a few days. It can only mean harvest season is here. Jeff Miller at Cornell Cooperative Extension says it's also time for a moisture analysis on your corn.

It is imperative that growers harvest corn at the ideal moisture for proper fermentation of their corn silage. The ears in early planted corn fields are beginning to dent indicating that plants are starting to dry down. Growers need to start checking whole plant moisture samples on these early fields in a week.

Here's how to check moisture.  Chop a few rows for a sample or by hand harvesting 6-10 whole plants (at the height you normally chop at) running them through a tree chipper and measuring the dry matter using a microwave or a koster tester.  Page 16 of CCE's October 2014 Farm Flash details how to check moisture using a microwave.

You can also bring your whole plant samples to CCE for dry matter analysis. Just call in advance so you know that someone will be there to process your sample immediately. Call Jeff at 315-736-3394 ext 120.

SOURCE: Cornell Cooperative Extension - Jeff Miller