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68340 | We started picking about 38%. You can pick it to green and dry it to fast. Above 38% the ken al is a little to tender on the outside I would say.
We tried to take 1 point of moisture out every 4 hrs until it is 11.5-12%. Lots of air and temp 95 degrees for the first 24 hrs, followed by 100 degree heat untill dry. 20 to 40 cubic feet of air per bushel is needed. I would spend as much on fuel drying that seed as it took to irr. in the summer.
You want to pick it wet to keep the kernels on the cob. Any shelling during picking can get crushed. A crushed kernal with a crack will not grow.
You cannot grade out the crushed/cracked kernal that is whole, no part of the kernal missing, because it does not weight any different than a non crushed kernal. When the corn come into the plant all kernels not on the ear are thrown away. They do have color sorters, but are not very efficient. The kernal is dyed and then ran through a machine that can read the extra color in/on a cracked kernal and then a burst of air blows it out. Very slow and you blow 1 or 2 good kernels out for every bad one you blow out. You really want/need the seed of that variety to go to all that expense/work.
We wanted to be done with a hybrid by the time it was 28%. If it got down to 24% or below you can shell off 1/3 of the corn that has to be thrown away. Esp. if you had a poor seed set.
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Seed Corn Harvest
