{"id":2913,"date":"2026-09-22T11:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/?p=2913"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:09:33","slug":"corn-harvest-and-timing-event-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/corn-harvest-and-timing-event-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Corn Harvest and Timing Event Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Under a clear sky on September 14th<\/sup> the UVM Extension and the Champlain Valley Farmer coalition, and many local farmers huddled together to talk about this seasons corn production and what the upcoming weeks would look like. On the docket for the rest of September is going to entail lots of harvesting. This means hopefully getting another cut of hay off and then powering up the corn chopper to spend some long days in the corn fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              We were Joined by Tom Eaten with ACS consulting and John Buzeman from United Ag and Turf to spearhead the conversation around what everyone has been seeing this past crop season. In contrast to our drought conditions last year, this year we have been met with ideal growing conditions. Tom notes that this is a great year to back stock feed and get some much-needed tonnage that might have fallen short last year due to the drought conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              While the weather has been playing to our advantage, Tom made sure to emphasize the importance of waiting one or two more weeks for your corn to reach ideal dry matter and starch percentages before jumping the gun and firing up the chopper. Ideal dry matter percentage for corn silage<\/strong> is around 35-38%,<\/strong> and for grain<\/strong> being in the 85% range<\/strong>. In addition, making sure to let those starches in the corn reach their maximum potential will ensure a higher feed quality, saving farmers a pretty penny due to better feed. Ideal starch<\/strong> percentage is around 42%<\/strong>, so let those plants sit out a little while longer before chopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              John Buzeman with United Ag and Turf demonstrated how the harvest lab 3000 can provide insight into moisture content, protein, starch, fiber, and sugar while chopping your corn this season. During the event we were chopping and measuring corn parameters using the harvest lab 3000 and a NIR machine. John provided invaluable insight to the maturity of their corn and how much longer they should wait before they begin harvesting. The harvest lab 3000 can provide real time ingredient measurement<\/strong>, accurate yield<\/strong>, and can automatically adjust cut rate on-the-go<\/strong>. With the harvest lab running corn samples every 30 seconds, and the ACS team running their NIR machine that measures dry matter, we provided numerous farmers with in field results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Planning for the final push of the season looks a little different than last year when we expected lower yields and delayed cover crop planting. Prioritizing cover crop planting this year will ensure necessary nitrogen fixation for next spring when those are terminated. In addition, we saw a bit of pressure from corn leaf blight and grey leaf spot in corn this year. However, with the decrease in BMR corn, there should be minimal pressure on conventional corn. Keep an eye out for those as you harvest this year and next spring when temperatures start to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              While we wrap up this season, we also discussed strategies and techniques for the following years. Tom touched upon some tools that are slowly starting to integrate more into New England. One of those tools being high chop corn. High chop corn is the idea that raising the chopping height of corn to 6-12 inches higher than normal could result in higher digestibility and starch content. The high chop technique has shown to produce a decrease in lignin and an increase in forage quality. Raising the chopping height would decrease lignin because lignin is heavily concentrated in the lower portion of the corn stalk. However, it is important to note that one should only consider this practice when there is high inventory of good feed, preferably 4-6 months of carryover. With the drought conditions last year, many are still recovering from loss of inventory. This season looks like a great way to catch up, and under ideal circumstances get a bit ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we head into colder weather please be on the lookout for UVM and Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition hosted events this fall and NMP update sessions hosted by UVM extension in the winter. With questions please don\u2019t hesitate to reach out to emma.sandman@uvm.edu<\/a> at UVM and Kate@cvfc-vt.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Under a clear sky on September 14th the UVM Extension and the Champlain Valley Farmer coalition, and many local farmers huddled together to talk about this seasons corn production and what the upcoming weeks would look like. On the docket for the rest of September is going to entail lots of harvesting. This means hopefully … Continue reading “Corn Harvest and Timing Event Recap”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9982,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9982"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2916,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions\/2916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cvcrops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}