You will get a better idea of when you can harvest the corn in your fields over the course of the next two Wednesday mornings. The Kewaunee, Door, and Brown County UW Madison Extension Offices are offering opportunities to have standing corn intended for corn silage tested for moisture. Farmers aim for 65 percent moisture at harvest time in order to maximize the quality of the forage. Last year, samples from 124 fields used the corn dry-down testing days to get a better idea of where their crops were at and when they could potentially head into the fields. The results averaged about 69 percent moisture, meaning that farmers had to wait a little bit longer before firing up their equipment. The extension office will hold the dry-down events at the Door County Cooperative on State Highway 42/57 from 9 a.m. to noon on September 6th and at Rio Creek Feed Mill’s Luxemburg site on September 13th from 9 a.m. to noon. You can find more details about the events below. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Statistics Service report from earlier this week, the corn condition was rated as 59 percent good to excellent. While that was up four percent from a week ago, it is down 17 percentage points from 2022, 19 percentage points from 2021, and 21 percentage points from 2020.  

Picture from Aerica Bjurstrom