By Sotirios Archontoulis and Ezequiel Saenz
As corn approaches physiological maturity and, in some areas, even harvest maturity, farmers face the challenge of deciding when to begin harvest. The ISU Corn DryDown Calculator is a practical tool that helps forecast grain moisture over the next 5 and 10 days, making it easier to schedule harvest operations.
Link to the Calculator: https://facts.extension.iastate.edu/corn-drydown-calculator
The tool covers the entire US Corn Belt. The user first selects a location on the map and then selects a date and a corn grain moisture content on that date. The tool generates a graph showing daily drydown patterns (see Fig 1) and a table summarizing the projected grain moisture content over the next 5 and 10 days (see Table 1). For example, if the grain moisture in central Iowa is 35% today (September 2), the calculator predicts it will drop to 28.6% in 5 days and to 23.8% in 10 days.