Frost on our corn
Saturday morning, the AdFarm North Dakota corn had 29 degree F frost. Cooperating Farmer Fred Lukens, Aneta, N.D., says: “It froze the top four feet or so of the AdFarm corn plants. The lower leaves are still green in case there are some plants that still need to put nutrients into the cobs.”
Why we planted an early maturing hybrid
“Our Pioneer 39D97 variety reaches maturity at 1850 GDU’s (growing degree units). On Saturday, we were at roughly 1900 GDU’s. This corn should be fully mature, the test weight at harvest will tell us for certain,” Fred says.
Harvest target remains mid- to late-October.
See the frost-singed AdFarm N.D. corn at Fred’s own farm blog post on this topic
What are your thoughts on our frosted corn? How are your own acres and veggie garden looking? We’d love to hear your comments.
Warren- great question. To my knowledge, a corn plant that has reached full maturity is protected from significant yield loss if a frost should occur.
According to North Dakota State University Corn Production Guide, if the killing frost occurs before grain fill is complete, yield potential and quality could be affected. A killing frost can occur when the temperature in the crop canopy drops from 32F to 28F for a short time (5-10 minutes) or if the canopy temperature stays at 32F for four to five hours. This is adequate to kill the entire plant. A lighter frost of 30-32F lasting an hour or two could kill leaves but not the stalk or ear shank. When only a portion of the leaves are killed, those not killed can continue to function and contribute to grain yield if good growing conditions follow frost.
If our corn was “late” and was at half milk line or still in denting stages, the damage could have resulted in an 8% to 32% in yield loss. As Fred says, we will have to wait until test weight at harvest to know the real effects.
I don’t know as much about corn as I should: does this frost damage mean a loss of grade or yield?
Warren
So to the farmer who knows corn, the early frost plays positive, negative or no role in what we can expect of a successful crop? Are we looking at some loss due to the frost or is the corn at a point that frost has no effect? Could you detail how it does.
Thanks and still Crazy about Farming,
Reedzy