It’s been hot and steamy across the Corn Belt the past couple weeks. With talk of elevated overnight temperatures, there was an assumption that it could hinder pollination. As you drive down the I-55 corridor, that’s not the case, as uniform fields show promise for a record corn crop in 2018.
 
“We like our ear to pollinate - it's going to start at the butt of the ear move to the tip - and we like that to happen within five days,” said Isaac Ferrie, Crop-Tech Consulting. “This year, we're probably closer to 2 or 3 days on a lot of the stuff that we're looking at, which is good.”
 
He said it’s been prime pollination for corn in central Illinois this year. If pollination is extended past five days, that’s when trouble can brew in the fields, costing farmers yield.
 
“If we get outside of that five-day window and the development of the kernels on the tip are a lot further - or not as nearly as developed as the ones on the butt- they're more likely to abort as we go into it.”
 
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