Farmers in drought-affected areas are mindful of stalk integrity going into harvest.

Kelly Nieuwenhuis grows corn and soybeans in northwest Iowa and tells Brownfield some of his farms received less than seven total inches of rain between March and September.

“That plant is amazing (because) it will do anything and everything to fill that ear, and sometimes it will sacrifice its stalk to finish filling the ear. So that’s mainly what we want to do is get some of that corn done.”

He says he treated many of his fields with fungicide during the growing season.

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