The 2026 crop year has been all over the place in South Carolina, from periods of drought to excessive rains, making management decisions has been a challenge. With the majority of our corn crop finishing up a few things to keep in mind.
Irrigated Corn:
- Most of our crop is now full dent or beyond, we have made it to the point where we can tolerate some foliar disease and not suffer greatly, so if you have made to R5 (Dent), we generally recommend that you are in the clear for fungicide applications and foliar diseases. We have not found southern rust in SC this year as of today, so very little concern for that impacting our corn crop in 2026.
- Do not terminate irrigation too early. We need to make it to black layer or physiological maturity before we stop watering. You can track the progression of the milk line on the kernels to help gauge how far out you are from reaching black layer. I have heard a good rule of thumb is to estimate 7 days for each 25% of milk line progression. For example, if the milk line is 50% of the way through the kernel you can estimate black layer is about 14 days away.
- Harvest aids and late season weed control. With the erratic rainfall that we have had across the state, I have seen areas where PRE herbicides have not performed well and vice versa. If you plan to make harvest aid applications follow the label and be mindful of any pre harvest intervals that you may have for the specific product you plan to use. Talking with Dr. Marshall in the past, “killing” the corn with a harvest aid will not speed up dry down or cause the grain to reach a lower moisture content any faster than it would had you not sprayed it.
Aflatoxin:
In years where corn has experienced heat and drought stress, like much of the 2026 crop in SC has, aflatoxin is always a concern. Things to consider would be keeping irrigated and dryland fields separate if putting into the bin. Pulling aflatoxin samples on sandier fields or fields that you know had more and longer periods of stress. Reach out to crop insurance adjusters now to get a game plan on sampling if you carry a quality policy. Over the past few years, there have been some bottle-neck issues with sampling and the chain of custody for samples going to an approved lab for crop insurance.
