By Greg Blonde
It’s that time of the year when farmers monitor the weather waiting anxiously for moisture in corn kernels to drop before their final harvest begins.
Greg Blonde, UW-Extension Waupaca County Agriculture Agent, says “a bushel of dry shell corn weighs 56 pounds at 15% percent kernel moisture. That’s over eight pounds of water in each bushel of ‘dry’ corn. However, corn with 25-35% kernel moisture (17-25 pounds of water per bushel) is not uncommon this year following delayed planting, excess rain and saturated fields throughout much of the state.”
Determining the value of wet shell corn is important to farmers when making marketing and management decisions like buying, selling, feeding, drying and storage.
To help with those decisions, Blonde reminds corn growers and their advisors to check out the mobile
Android app “Pricing Wet Corn” released in 2014 and downloaded by more than 700 users.
The app quickly calculates a value for wet shell corn based on kernel moisture and price for local dry shell corn (a direct link to local elevator dry corn bid prices is included with the app). The equivalent wet corn price is then calculated in both price per ton and price per bushel. Additional costs for drying and/or shelling can be evaluated entering those input costs under the expense tab. Results from the summary screen can be email directly to others.
This
“Pricing Wet Corn” app is free and available for Android smart phones and tablets on the Google Play store by searching for HMSC (high moisture shell corn). A desktop spreadsheet for pricing high moisture shell corn is also available on the
UW Center for Dairy Profitability web site.
“However, it doesn’t have the ability to bring up current market information or automatically share the results”, Blonde says. “When you’re in the field or on the go, this app for pricing wet corn is a great tool to have on your Android smartphone or tablet.”