44 Our Advertisers Appreciate Your Business Better Farming | May/June 2024 We spoke to many agronomy experts based in the U.S. Midwest, including those associated with the universities in Iowa and Illinois. The cropping year of 2023 had a hot and dry start in May and June, but the smoke and wildfires from Canada during the growth phase seemed to have had perfect timing for adding yield potential. Dr. Fred Below, plant physiologist from the University of Illinois, concluded that the lack of diseases and the fact that crops received all their nutrients contributed to the higher-than-expected yields. Dan Quinn, a corn extension specialist from Purdue University, said that haze and reduced air quality from wildfire smoke can result in both negative and positive impacts on crop growth. A negative impact is a reduction in light availability and solar radiation, which can reduce crop photosynthesis. Wildfire smoke in the atmosphere can reflect portions of incoming sunlight, thus reducing the total amount available to plants. Reductions in light availability tends to impact C4 plants like corn as it has a higher light saturation point (the point at which further increases in light do not increase photosynthesis). Soybean plants are more susceptible to changes in CO2. The second negative impact from wildfire smoke is an increase in ground-level ozone. Wildfires can emit various air pollutants that can form ozone when reacted with sunlight. Ozone can cause harm to both corn and soybeans by entering the plant through the stomata and causing harm to plant tissue during respiration. Since both reductions in sunlight and increases in ozone can cause photosynthesis reductions, corn may also be inclined to remobilize carbohydrates from the stalks later in the season to satisfy grain fill requirements, thus increasing the potential for weak stalks and lodging prior to harvest. Wildfire smoke can also scatter or diffuse sunlight and allow light to penetrate deeper into the crop canopy and increase plant photosynthesis. When direct sunlight is reduced, it can also lower the temperature and give the corn plant a breather and benefit plants under crop stress. Lower leaf temperatures can lower the amount of transpiration (water movement and evaporation from the plant) needed to cool the plant and reduce overall water stress as well. Kevin Kalb from southern Indiana, who won first place in the 2023 Conventional Non-Irrigated National Corn Growers Association category with a 425 bpa corn yield, admitted that he did not have the ideal weather to achieve a 425 bpa yield, but that the Canadian smoke added carbon and sulphur to the soil and corn plants. Agronomist Ken Ferrie, with CropTech Consulting from central Illinois, referred to the crop water use or “evapotranspiration” (ET). Evapotranspiration is the combination of water evaporation (E) from soil and plant surfaces as well as water used by plants for growth and transpiration (T). Transpiration refers to the water lost to the atmosphere. At the end of June, the ET rate was just as high or worse than 2012. But the diffusion of the sun’s radiation and rays to the lower canopy of the corn crop (which usually does not happen) and haze from the smoke protecting the corn crop from heat and stress helped add yield and drop the ET rate. The smoke came at the right time during the growth stage and not at the grain-fill stage in July and August when it was smoke free, as it could have had very devastating effects. Wildfires were blazing during March 2024 in northern Texas and the adjoining states, but this need not have the same effect as the Canadian wildfires last year. We can’t quantify the impact of these wildfires on (better-than-expected) yields, but as more of these events happen, there is still much to learn. As the old saying goes, “When you are good, you are lucky.” The good refers to the genetics, but all the experts we spoke to agreed that they are not bulletproof, and farmers got lucky with yields in 2023 from the timely smoke in June and rains in July. With a La Niña looming and expected to return by May of 2024, farmers may not be so lucky! BF Moe’s Market Minute MOE AGOSTINO & ABHINESH GOPAL Maurizio (“Moe”) is chief commodity strategist with Farms.com Risk Management and Abhinesh is head of commodity research.
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