Bulloch County corn is looking like a bumper crop, if weather cooperates, said Bulloch County Agent Pat Todd.
    Following a wet spring, corn crops were looking great until last week, when blistering temperatures began sapping soil moisture and twisting the corn plant’s leaves. Todd and area farmers were beginning to be concerned, but  Tuesday’s blustering thunderstorms that swept across the county eased the worry just a little.
However, more rain is needed if the crops are to thrive, Todd said.
    The heat “hasn’t hurt it yet,” he said Monday. “But we’ve got to get some rain this week.” The rain came, but if sweltering weather continues, it must be accompanied by rainfall to balance things, he said.
    The corn crop in Bulloch County “is the best I’ve seen in a long time,” he said. But when farmers see the plants begin to twist – a way the plants conserve moisture – they get anxious. “Corn is starting to tassel and silk,” he said. “We have to have water now.”
    Corn tassels on top of the plant are how it gets pollinated. The silks, which are yellow strings inside the shucks of the ear of corn, turn brown and dry on the ends as the corn matures. The silks feed and protect the kernels.
    Since May was such a wet month, corn got a great start and most fields have a strong stand, Todd said. But within the last week, the soil moisture began to dry up and the plants began to show signs of heat stress.
    It’s not just field corn, but sweet corn that depends so strongly on steady moisture, he said.  Sweet corn, as opposed to field corn, is eaten before the kernels become hard. Field corn is left on the stalk until it fully matures into hard kernels, is harvested, then ground into grits or meal or used otherwise. Some people eat field corn, in its young stage, often referring to them as ‘roasting ears.”
    Many farmers irrigate their fields, but even so, rainfall is a welcomed blessing, he said.
    Billy Phillips, who manages Gerrald Farms, said there was not much rainfall in the Clito area Tuesday. “We didn’t get much,” he said. The farm irrigates its fields.
    Portal area farmer Al Clark, who owns an organic farm, has about 50 acres of organic field corn, which is in demand by organic dairies, which must feed their cattle organic feed.
    His corn, like other fields, was beginning to twist Tuesday, but since he irrigates as well, “We’re doing OK,” he said. And with a soaking rain in his area, the corn perked up after the downpour that followed a sweltering two days of moisture-sapping heat.
“Yesterday, it was awful,” he said Wednesday.
Holli Deal Bragg may be reached at (912) 489-9414.