Corn Harvest Prediction

Predicting the future can be really helpful in farming, but unless you know something about dead-cats and phases of the moon that I don't, the only real way to predict crop yields is with good science and good scientific tools.  The good news is that for corn growers, the science is pretty simple, and the tools are free and you can use them via the calculator link featured below.

The science was developed by agriculture instructors at the University of Maryland and the tool is a free online calculator that walks you through a few steps to develop a reasonable estimation on how much corn (maize) your farm is going to yield while the ears are still on the stalks.   The link below takes you to the free Corn Yield Calculator that has step by step instructions, but in short, you:

1. Find and part of your fields that look average, not too green or too brown ( a good place for a sample).
2. Compute how long of a row will give you a 1,000^th of an acre sample  (e.g. 26 feet)
3. Count the ears in the sample row (e.g. 52 ears in the 26 feet)
4. Take five ears at random in the row and count the kernels.
5. Average five ears to estimate the average kernels per ear
6. Inspect and evaluate the kernel sizes to see if they are small, medium or large kernels
7. Enter the values in the Yield Calculator including the number of acres you have in corn, and ....

You'll have a good estimate of how much corn you'll yield in dry bushels of harvested corn.  If you CLICK HERE, you can see a YouTube video where the Extension Instructor walks you through using the calculator.

Science and math are a lovely couple, and they're here to help.