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Harvesting Lodged Corn
If after taking precautions to avoid stalk lodging, it still occurs, you have some options on how to manage to minimize harvest loss. You will need to inspect fields weekly in August and September. Observations need to be made throughout the field, not just the outside rows or the headlands. To estimate how much stalk rot is present, pinch stalks near the ground and up toward the ear on a hundred continuous plants at several places in the field. A hollow shell of a stalk that collapses easily indicates advanced stages of stalk rot. Learn if it is in isolated areas or field wide. Are only one or two of your fields infected or are all fields?
Harvest affected areas first. Harvest as soon after physiological maturity as your drying equipment can handle the crop. Reduce your harvest equipment ground speed. By harvesting at slower speed (two miles per hour) your ability to pick up lodged ears increases. Gathering-chair speed and snapping roll velocity should correspond to ground speed. If lodging is severe, you may have to harvest in one direction only.
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