Corn grain fill and yield response to mid-season weather events
Date
2021-08
Authors
White, Tyler Russell
Major Professor
Advisor
Licht, Mark
Archontoulis, Sotirios V
Todey, Dennis
Committee Member
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Abstract
As profit margins become increasingly smaller for Midwest farmers, it is crucial to understand how a crop will react to various weather-related stresses. These studies explore how corn (Zea maize L.) grain yields may be affected after suffering stresses during the late vegetative through reproductive growth stages. Late vegetative stand reductions and above ear greensnap trials included four treatments (0, 25, 50, 75%) at three different timings (V16, VT, R2) utilizing a randomized complete block design near Ames, IA in 2019 and 2020. Stand reduction treatments were applied by severing plants just above the soil, and above ear greensnap treatments were applied by severing plants above the primary ear node. The late vegetative stand reductions and above ear greensnap both displayed an effect of the treatment severity but no effect on yield by treatment timing. Both trials displayed yield compensation that occurred at approximately the 25% treatment severity level. The field edge effect was designed to be a randomized complete block design in multiple geographical areas of Iowa in 2019 and 2020. Treatments were considered as four distances (4.6, 13.7, 32.0, and 50.3m) from the field edge within 2-4 transects per field. Each distance from the field edge consisted of temperature and relative humidity, grain yield/moisture, and yield component data. In 2019 and 2020, a field edge effect was detected in three of seven locations. A fourth location had only a moderate field edge effect detected.
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