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Rain Damage Reduces Grain Quality
Grain that is re-wet by rainfall after it is dried down at harvest suffers quality loss through either lowered test weight or sprouting. The damage can occur in both swathed and standing grain.
Test weight loss on grain that has had rain after it has matured is usually 2 to 3 pounds per bushel but can be worse as grain wets and dries several times. This occurs because grain swells as it absorbs water, then fails to re-dry to it's original size.
USDA research at Mandan shows that a standing grain crop that will yield 50 bushels per acre will saturate with the equivalent of .04 inch of rain on one acre. Assuming that only 25 percent of the rain that falls hits and is absorbed by the standing grain, the rain required to saturate the crop increases to .16 inch.
More rain is required to re-wet swathed grain. Windrowing concentrates plant tissue and exposes bare ground. The rain required to re-wet swathed grain varies with the size of the windrow, but the dominating factors are grain yield and the width of the swath cut. For example, a 45 bushel crop in a yard-wide windrow cut with a 24 foot header will require about .35 inches of rain to re-wet.
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