Major Fungus Build Up on Iowa Corn

by | Sep 23, 2016 | 5 Ag Stories, News

by Ken Root

Dr. Charles Hurburgh, Iowa State?s Grain Quality Expert, sizes up the corn crop where moisture has been excessive for most of the summer. Mold is everywhere, he says, and some of it will produce toxins that impact feeding quality and health of livestock. Dr. Hurburgh is a well known grain quality specialist at Iowa State University. He says the wet summer has caused very high amounts of numerous fungi.

Hurburgh cautions that low temperature drying will not be enough to get this crop ready to store. He recently published a review of Iowa grain quality projections. “You couldn’t write better conditions for fungus growth.” says Hurburgh, who has seen many Iowa harvests come in. “We normall don’t have that as the last half of September is usually dry with low humidity” RDr Charles Hurburgh Full Interview.

“We could really use a hard frost,” That seems to stop the fungus growth and gets the ground tightened up.” Dr. Hurburgh’s research findings are featured in the ICM News from Iowa State University http://crops.extension.iastate.edu/cropnews