Farm Progress
Normally when Dave Nanda walks through a cornfield in early to mid-September, he is anxious to shuck an ear, pull back the husks and split the ear in half. Then he plucks out a kernel, pulls out his pocketknife and, looking like a surgeon, gently pecks at the tip.
“I’m trying to determine if the black layer has formed,” Nanda says. “That’s a big deal for a corn plant, because if I find the black layer, it means the kernel is physiologically mature. It’s safe from frost. The plant has done its job and produced viable kernels. It doesn’t know that these kernels produced by hybrid corn won’t be planted.”