What's in a number? Understanding mycotoxin results.

Harvester's Digest: Maximizing Your Options as the 2012 Harvest Approaches  

As we face harvest after the worst drought in recent history, being prepared to handle mycotoxin contamination is crucial. This damage to the corn crop has already happened. Now, the waiting begins to see how much toxin contamination will be present in the crop, and where mycotoxin levels are the most extreme.Several things happened with the 2012 corn crop. First, many areas that are experiencing the most severe drought also experienced a mild winter. This resulted in corn planting taking place several weeks, or in some cases two months early. Because of the larger planting window, corn maturation also took place over a wide window of time. Second, because the drought hit early in the crop year and has been both widespread with little relief in precipitation and hit many areas at critical pollination time, contamination will be widespread. Crops that went in early and crops that went in later will both be affected. Unfortunately, as of the end of July the U.S. corn crop has deteriorated to less than 25% in good to excellent shape, and that number is falling weekly.

Mycotoxin Management