5/21/2023 0 Comments Bushel weight converter![]() ![]() This is complicated-if all other kernel characteristics stay the same as kernels dry, loss of water weight might lower test weight. The other main reason for low test weights is having high grain moisture when test weight is measured. We don’t believe there was much of this in 2019, but some fields planted very late with normal-maturity hybrids might not have finished filling before freezing. The last time we saw a substantial amount of this was on 2009, when cool weather prolonged the season, and test weights were as low as the mid-40s in some fields. Kernels that don’t fill completely may also contains sugars that didn’t get converted to starch, and these can darken during heated-air drying, causing additional dockage due to kernel damage. Test weight acts as a proxy for harder-to-measure things such as starch content or kernel density. The market typically rewards sound, dense kernels, so shrunken kernels may be docked in price, with the amount of dockage tied to test weight. Such kernels have less starch and a lower starch-to-seedcoat ratio, but they might have higher protein and oil, since these are deposited before starch deposition ends. The result can be kernels that don’t weigh as much as usual and that don’t fit together very well, both of which can lower test weight. The starch deposited under poor conditions can also be less densely packed on the endosperm. Starch deposition in kernels starts at the crown of the kernel and moving towards the base, and when the movement of sugars into the kernel stops before kernels are full-sized, the base of the kernel may be shrunken. ![]() The first is the premature end to kernel filling that can result from poor growing conditions, disease of leaves or ears, severe drought, or frost that comes early or that occurs before late-planted corn is mature. There are two main reasons for low test weight. These are all affected both by genetics and by how the crop grows, matures, and is dried for storage. ![]() Test weight is easily measured, but is not easily understood: it’s a complex characteristic, affected by kernel shape, kernel density, and the slipperiness of seedcoats, which affects how well kernels slide past one another. Test weight is “bulk density”, or the weight of corn grain per unit of volume, expressed as pounds per bushel (one bushel is 1.24 cubic ft.) The “standard” test weight for corn is 56 pounds per bushel, and this weight (not a volume of 1.24 cubic feet) is the standard unit for marketing corn grain. One concern with late maturity and harvest of corn is low test weight, which in some cases can mean price dockage at the elevator. Most of the corn still standing in the field is in the northern third of the state. So most of the corn in Illinois was at or close to maturity by mid-late October, but temperatures have been below to much-below normal over most of the past month, and this has delayed drydown of the crop. Following unprecedented delays in planting, the warm weather in September helped move the crop towards maturity, and frost did not come earlier than normal. Illinois Crop Budgets and Historic ReturnsĪccording to NASS, 20 percent-some 2 million acres-of the 2019 Illinois corn crop was still in the field on November 17.Marketing and Crop Insurance Risk Model.Illinois Soil Productivity and Yield Utilities.Biomass Crop Budget Tool – Miscanthus and Switchgrass.Appraisal of Current Financial Position.Post Application Coverage Endorsement Tool.Crop Insurance Summary of Business Tool.Balance Sheet & Historical Financial Statements.Post Application Coverage Endorsement Tool (Sheet).Crop Insurance Summary of Business Tool (Sheet). ![]()
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