BARNWELL, Alta. — Corn crops were soaking up the sun on a 28 C day in southern Alberta Sept. 1 and Michel Camps couldn’t be happier.
“The corn looks very, very good,” said Camps as he stood in one of his corn fields.
“So far it’s been a good year.”
This crop near Barnwell, and others in the Taber region more famous for its fresh corn, will likely be harvested in mid-October.
It has three more weeks of growing time to reach maturity so it can dry down and be harvested at a suitable moisture level.
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Lloyd Van Eeden Petersman of Taber Home and Farm Centre, who is also a Dupont Pioneer representative, said grain corn acres seem to have levelled off in the region but it has become a viable crop in the rotation for some.
“Grain corn interest started to peak probably four or five years ago,” he said.
“New hybrids are better suited for the area. A couple years with strong commodity prices on the corn side of things and local demand got a lot of guys involved. It has become a part of crop rotation for quite a few of the growers. I’m not seeing a lot of new growers enter, especially today where commodity prices are headed on the corn side of it.”
Corn growers got an early start on the season this year and frequent rain showers and irrigation availability ensured crops suffered no drought stress.
As of last week, the southern Alberta corn-growing region had accumulated about 2,200 corn heat units, putting grain corn well on its way to maturity.
“If this kind of trend continues, it would put us into having our crop mature ahead of a Sept. 20 frost across most of the acres, so we’re quite happy with what we see,” said Van Eeden Petersman.
Sept. 20 is the average date for a killing frost in the region.
Higher than usual humidity may have contributed to disease problems, although hailstorms were the bigger culprit.
“Goss’s wilt is something that we see more prevalent across a wider range, a wider area this year, but then we also look back and we also had hail damage across a significant area,” said Van Eeden Petersman.
“Not bad hail or real damaging hail but just enough to damage the plant to a degree that perhaps it was susceptible to the spores of Goss’s wilt.”
He estimated the fungal disease affected one in three cornfields this year.
On the insect front, European corn borer is always an issue but this year two-spotted spider mites appeared, causing some growers to spray for crop protection.
“We need those plants to be actively growing and absorbing sunlight right up until the end because we need the full season here to grow the corn. You don’t want those leaves to be damaged or die off prematurely.”
