Being that I live east of San Antonio, I have seen this quite often lately. Brown / dead corn fields that have not been harvested. Yes, I know we are currently In a drought but if it were that bad I imagine I would see the same with the milo plots and other crops. Is this a case of farmers claiming insurance on their crop, the govt telling them not to harvest or are that many corn fields not being harvested this year?

If its dry land corn (not irrigated) then there's a good chance it didn't make a crop, or enough of a crop to justify running a combine through it.

Or, they just haven't harvested it yet.

Usually for crop insurance they'll leave several row unmharvested. Most likely either not enough grain to justify harvest or they haven't gotten to it yet.

It gets dry and brown before it's harvested. It will look straight yellow and dead in the fields around now,(especially around this time and through the end of July) depending on when it was planted. They should make a decent crop down there this year. In fayette county we'll have around 90 bushels to the acre which is a pretty good year.

Thanks for the replies! I just figured since the husks were brown and not yet harvested, the crop was a loss. I guess not all corn harvested is done when the husks are green. I guess you learn something everyday

Most corn in Texas east of San Antonio isn't harvested until late July or early August, when it is all a nice, dead, golden brown. Completely normal.

After all, most people don't have the time to hand feed their livestock soft corn on the cob.

They never harvest corn green for grain. You want it as dry as possible so you don't have to pay to dry it so it won't spoil. Any corn harvested green uis usually for corn silage.

Cannot have any moisture left in the grain for harvesting. Now probably waiting for the combiners to get to it.

15% moisture or lower to avoid drying costs.

^
That means 14.1 @ most elevators, unlike the rest of the world our local grain elevators round up on the first tenth.

Wow. That's pathetic. My family runs several grain elevators and we don't "screw" people like that.

You thought all corn was sweet corn?

If you ship a 14.1 pound box, you are paying to ship 15 pounds. Anything over goes to the next whole number.

It's not exactly the same as %moisture but most businesses operate with similar rules, especially those run by accountants.

[This message has been edited by AgResearch (edited 7/9/2012 8:04a).]

This thread is entertaining. Tell us more city folk.