Rain is on the way. Moisture that farmers have been hoping for all summer. But now, some of them are worried the rain may do more harm than good to the already weakened corn crops.
"With heavy wind or rains we could be seeing some of this corn go down," said Robb Ewoldt, Scott County Farm Bureau.
The local corn crop is barely hanging on. Even the corn that's salvageable, is weak. "It has had to sacrifice some of the strength in the stalk to fill the kernels on the ears," Ewoldt said. Corn on the ears is good but a weak stalk is nothing to fool around with. Heavy rain can flatten it to the ground --
"Which would make it very difficult to harvest. And also a loss in yield because we can't get all the corn once it falls down," said Ewoldt. "All of our modern mechanization is based on having a crop that stands upright, to harvest."
But the dry weather can't take all the blame for weak corn stalks. Ewoldt says it's the nature of the crop during this time of year --
"When corn reaches physical maturity the plant starts drying down. And dying. And you'll see that start from the bottom and come up."
There are some fields that are standing strong right now, but many of them aren't. Heavy rains could literally push corn over the edge.
"It's a welcome sight for building up moisture for next year," said Ewoldt. "But it has the potential to do some damage to our crop this year." And while the coming rain may not do much to help the current corn crop, it is helpful for soybeans. Beans are still pulling moisture from the ground.
