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cobden, ontario | Can corn test weight improve after drying? usually ship most corn out wet and this year most corn is grade 2. I have one field, however, that seems to be grade 4. I was wondering about getting someone to dry it and maybe I would store it for a while. Pride corn salesman says this is a only a pioneer problem..... Any truth to that? Dan
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Amherst WI | Your Pride guy is an idiot looking for any excuse he can to bash his competitors, whether true or not.
Test weight will improve after it is dried since the kernal is more dense. Starch is more dense than water.
Something I have noticed this year is that once corn is very dry (<15%) it will easily pick up 2-3 points of moisture after a rain event, and will also lose 2-3# of test weight. The old timers used to say that corn would only pick up .5% of moisture after a rain event but they weren't dealing with 13-15% corn in the field either. |
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eastern ontario | Sounds like something a Pride salesman would say! Almost all varieties, even those with the worst test weight, are making the grade this year. If you had some that didn't I would have to guess that it was either too high a heat unit for the area, planted too late, or your field had very little N |
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| Test weight generally has not been a problem for Pioneer. It's a factor in their slower drydown compared to others. Light corn tends to poorer quality which could lead to storage problems.
Edited by fertilizerguy 11/22/2010 19:59
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Oxford County Ontario | We run a commercial elevator just north east of London. Pioneer consistantly had the best test weight this season but was not always the best yielding. I don't want to get into a company war but I agree with hinfarm. There had to be something else to cause a grade 4 with the growing season we had this year |
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cobden, ontario | I just picked that farm up this spring so it only got the spring disk treatment and was the second last field planted. It was still planted may 19 though. pioneer 8906, yielding fairly well too. Had a fairly dry start, we didn't get rain of any amount until the middle of june. Maybe a lot of a bad thing? |
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Near-north Ontario, French River | Dan... from OMAFRA's web site http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/field/news/croppest/2009/...
Test Weight
Test weight should increase during the drying process. Typically we expect a one pound / bushel increase in test weight per 4 points removal, or 0.25 lb per bushel increase in test weight per point of moisture removal. High drying temperatures will cause moisture to leave quickly and can plump the kernels. Fewer plumped kernels fit into the ½ litre measure, lowering test weight. Plenum temperatures of 95oC or 200oF or above make this problem worse. Lower drying temperature down to 70oC to 80oC or 160oF to 180oF to reduce this problem. Very immature corn may have little if any increase in test weight when dried in a high temperature dryer, even at low plenum temperatures.
* normally expect 0.25 lb / bushel increase per point moisture removed
* drop drying temperatures in 5Co or 10Fo increments and note test weight
* immature corn may have little if any test weight increase through drying
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Corn Test Weight
