Greenfield — Excessive winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike caused extensive crop damage across the southern half of Indiana recently. Farmers faced with the challenge of gathering up what Ike knocked down can find some recommendations from a number of universities on how to decrease losses from lodged or “downed” corn on this Web site: http://www.kingcorn.org/news/articles.08/HarvLodgedCorn-0918.html.

Lodging impacts corn yields due to mechanical losses but also because maturity development may be delayed. Quality is also impacted as grain is subject to higher moisture levels which can cause sprouting and increased disease.

The sooner farmers can harvest these fields, the better, with the understanding that grain moisture still needs to be low enough, about 25 to 27 percent moisture, to avoid mechanical injury by the combine.