The frost-ing on the cake 
of the 2009 planting season

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Area farmers have been keeping their fingers crossed, but it looks like their luck is about to run out.

By Sunday morning, most of the area will experience a hard freeze with lows in the 20s, according to meteorologist Anthony Peoples, with the WQAD News 8 television station.

“With temperatures below the freezing mark, 32 degrees, for several hours, a widespread hard freeze is likely,” Peoples said Friday morning. “This is what we call a ‘killing frost,’ which is the end of the growing season when any potted plants or tender vegetation outdoors will likely die or be damaged.”

For area farmers, a late spring planting season and a cool summer have combined to produce a corn crop that’s running considerably behind schedule this year. As of Monday, 41 percent of the state’s corn crop was rated mature as opposed to a 93 percent average during the past five years. In addition, only 5 percent was harvested, a fraction of the 41 percent that’s usually been harvested by this time during the past five years.

Bureau County farmer Alan Dale said Friday a number of soybeans planted in June are vulnerable to the freeze, and he believes about one-third of the corn in the county is not physiologically mature.

“Between 25 and 30 percent of the corn is not at black layer,” he said.
According to Bob Frazee, University of Illinois Natural Resources Educator, physiological maturity is the term used to describe the point of grain development at which the kernels have maximum dry weight and the plant is safe from yield loss by frost. The formation of a black layer is the signal of full kernel maturity.

Once the black layer appears, the corn can no longer increase in weight and will begin a gradual reduction in moisture content during the drying period before harvest.

Dale said the hard freeze predicted for this weekend could have an impact on test weight when the corn is harvested. Weight is one determining factor of quality, and if the corn weighs less than 54 pounds per bushel, the farmer will receive a dock in price. Fully matured corn should weigh 55 to 60 pounds per bushel.

Scott Stoller, grain merchandiser with Michlig Ag in Manlius, said that at 54 pounds, the starch level in the corn is still good, but below that weight, the corn begins to lose its starch and protein values.

Stoller said he’s heard from older farmers that this year’s conditions are the most widespread since 1974, but no one is sure how bad this weekend’s freeze is going to affect local farmers.

“We can fret about it today, or we can just wait and see what kind of cards we’ll have to pick up off the floor on Monday,” he said.

No matter what happens this weekend, Peoples said that, looking ahead to the next couple weeks, it doesn’t look like Indian Summer and warmer temperatures will come any time soon. October temperatures are running more than six degrees below average and that heat deficit should continue through early next week.

“Here in the Midwest, Indian Summer is toasty 70s, 80s, or a rare 90-degree temperatures,” Peoples said. “Unfortunately, high temperatures over the next couple of weeks will likely remain well below average in the 50s. We may luck out with a few days in the low-to-mid 60s.”

According to Dale, the expected hard freeze and cooler temperatures are just another chapter in the 2009 planting season.

“This is one of those years when ‘normal’ doesn’t apply,” he said.

Senior Staff Writer Donna Barker contributed to this article.

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