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Greater-than-normal ‘tip back’ in some areas

Some areas of the Midwest are seeing greater-than-normal “tip back” of corn ears this year.

Tip back is when the kernels don’t fill all the way out to the end of the ear. It’s usually related to weather stress.

But tip back is not necessarily a bad thing, says Todd Claussen, director of agronomy for Ames, Iowa-based Landus Cooperative.

“Historically, tip back is part of crop production,” Claussen says. “One, it’s your first indicator of where your population is, if you’re in a good population standpoint or not. You want some tip back.”

Claussen says, in some cases, tip back can mean reduced yield. But he says it depends on how well the rest of the ear has developed.

“Guys have some real difficult moments as they husk corn back and look at their potential ears—and they go, ‘Look at all that tip back’,” Claussen says. “Yes, but how many kernels long do you have? Are you tipped back eight kernels, but are still 36 or 38 (kernels) long? That’s a big ear.”

Claussen says corn ears in northern Iowa usually average around 32 or 33 kernels in length.

AUDIO: Todd Claussen