What's the best humidity to harvest corn?

Question

What's the best humidity to harvest corn?

Answer 1

Very few farmers would have the luxury of waiting for the idea humidity (moisture in the air) to harvest their corn.  I am going to assume that you meant the best moisture percentage of the corn and answer your question that way.  The idea % moisture of corn when harvesting and going to market directly would be 15.5%.  Any higher you will be docked in price received, any less and you are giving away part of your corn.  Most farmers will put their corn in storage to take advantage of higher prices later in the year.  Having good drying and storage facilities gives the farmer a lot more options in harvesting.  15.5% is still a good time to harvest, but the corn will have to be  dried down to around 14.0 to 14.5% for safe storage.  This can usually be done by just circulating air with no heat required.  Most farmers with adequate storage and drying will harvest corn at higher moisture to prevent losses of corn while in the field.  That will start harvesting corn with moisture as high as 22%.  This corn will have to be dried with forced heated air down to around 14% and this can be expensive.  The farmer has to weigh the costs against field losses and the number of acres to harvest to try to find the best moisture for him to harvest his corn.

Answer 2

As dry as possible, as it costs a fortune to reduce the humidity

Answer 3

10 percent

Answer 4

<=65%

this % humidity is  good, if your particular location can attained such. It is good humidity level to minimized high percentage of moisture in the corn cobs and have a good storage quality.

That's why on some areas, if they wanted a much higher price for their corn they dry it to a certain moisture level to extend shelf life of the corn till price is good. Then unload their corn for the market!