A lot of corn coming down in NW Wisconsin this past week, getting chopped for silage. I noticed in several fields that I drove by- typically there were 4 rows of corn left standing in strips the full length of the field about 40-50 yards between strips.
What is the purpose for leaving the strips?

If it is a drought then left to show insurance/yield.

It's been really wet and during the growing season they got rain at the right times- I thought it could be disease or something?

might be for goose hunting

It’s for crop insurance yield checks even on good years you have to to do checks to prove that the field has potential it’s so you can’t say you should have got 200 bpa on a field that would never get that good to avoid insurance fraud

Very interesting- thanks

^^ this ^^

Data collected in the Management Program on the tractor would provide accurate information

It’s getting chopped here the trucks have been running for a week now, the feedlot down the road takes it all. Here when if strips are left in the field it could indicate a hunting lease or a way to stop drifting but insurance makes more sense in a bad harvest year.

Might be seed corn plots. For some reason they leave the male or female rows.Not sure which one.

Just found out about what Is picked. They pick the female corn first and then It's dried and processed Into seed corn. They leave the male rows to mature and dry out. Then It's harvested and used for feed.
And like some one said It could be a Insurance thing.

The fields we hunt on, the farmer usually does a pass through and around the bush line, great for bow hunting. Some corn he’s taken in the middle of winter. He’ll sometimes leave a 10 row strip every now and then in fall. Great for goose hunting. But the geese are on the plowed fields now, weird.
Where the deer & mostly bear damaged the crop, says his collection gauges drop to zilch in the machine.

Was told that for crop insurance to pay farmer had to leave a certain number of strips for wildlife to eat, namely deer.

Tractors alone are unable to obtain that information. Yield monitors are installed in combines which would record that information. Silage is typically chopped before the corn is dry enough to harvest for the grain alone. The rows are left to record the average yield of the field for that year which must be reported to crop insurance every year. The annual yield is used to create a long term average. This becomes the base for which the insurance value is calculated for the field for next year. If the farmer does not record his own yield, an "average" yield is assigned to him which is usually much lower than a typical average yield. Crop insurance adjusters have a formula they use by measuring cob legth, cob circumstances, and plant stand to determine the yield. Or, a combine is brought in, once the grain is dry, that has a recording yield monitor, and they will harvest the rows. Or, perhaps the yield is so poor from the drought that the farmer feels the silage holds more value than the grain does, in which case the rows are left for insurance to record a yield to base a claim on. Farmers are not paid anything to leave it for wildlife.

Driving drunk

started in Wisconsin

Yes crop insurance purposes. The USDA contracts with persons on a temporary basis to yield check those 4-row strips. Crop insurance is based on corn grain yield and thus a designated procedure is used to measure portions of rows, count ears, count kernels and use that data to determine yield. Farmers have several options of coverage from lower to higher yield with an increase in premium for higher coverage. We are not seeing nearly as many rows left near me as in other parts of the state as most know they will not have enough loss to get any payments. In some areas of WI crop insurance payments will be higher than what is produced.

Bryce

Same thing here