The U.S. government is forecasting a record corn crop this year, but pictures of ugly-looking plants spreading fast through social media have triggered concern about the upcoming harvest.
The photos show corn with missing kernels as a result of uneven pollination caused by “tight tassel wrap.” The phenomenon is adding to the frustration of farmers already contending with low grain prices, high fertilizer costs and tougher export markets.
It’s a problem that’s not readily apparent at the roadside, where fields of dark green and uniformly tall corn plants stretch out to the horizon.
“If you were just driving by that field, you’d go, ‘Wow, that corn looks healthy. That corn looks great,’” said Dan Quinn, an assistant professor of agronomy and Extension corn specialist at Purdue University. “You pull some of the ears and go, ‘Oh wow, that’s not as good.’”
The grain market expected to get a better understanding of the scale of the problem this past week. The annual Pro Farmer Crop Tour will see a small army of traders, analysts and journalists act as crop scouts, traveling across fields from Ohio to South Dakota to record in detail the health of corn and soybean crops.
They’ll measure the size of plants and keep an eye out for crop diseases, insects and weeds. Estimates are collected and extrapolated across the rest of the country and compared with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s outlook.
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