What does aflatoxin look like...pre harvest?

[Amo]

I do some crop insurance adjusting work. Went and did some silage appraisals Friday. Dryland corn had some green looking mold on it. Its not unusuall for it to be moldy if it got hailed on, but thats usually white in color. This was almost JD green. Maybe just a tad bit darker. I really doubt its afla, (I think its invisable) but just courious.

TIA

 

[jedstivers]

Most years we have that green mold on anything outside the water but this year the dry and watered corn were both pretty as could be, no aflo. I've always heard that the green was not aflo but don't know.

 

[greybeard]

Everything I've ever read or heard about Aspergillus fungus says yellow green to dark greyish green. I think it's the same thing that causes afla. I get it on my Bahia this year in hot periods following a wet humid period, especially after mowing. It's kinda powdery too.

 

[TexasBred]

I do some crop insurance adjusting work. Went and did some silage appraisals Friday. Dryland corn had some green looking mold on it. Its not unusuall for it to be moldy if it got hailed on, but thats usually white in color. This was almost JD green. Maybe just a tad bit darker. I really doubt its afla, (I think its invisable) but just courious.

TIA

Aflatoxin is microscopic and can't be seen. It will show up under black light but so will rat urine. :shock: If you're working for insurance company they should furnish you with a tester so your work can be accurate. Vicam is the best test but even sampling is not an exact science. You can have hot spots in the field or the load and completely miss them with the test or when you pull samples may come from the only "hot" spot in the load. Try to get a very good representative sample, mix it and test it.

 

[Amo]

Just to clarify...the mold was on the ears of corn.

We wern't testing for afla. Just doing silage appraisals. We measure off either 1/1000 or 1/100 of an acre, husk it, weigh it, and calculate it for % moisture. Just seen the color of the mold when husking the ears. Went to a guys place today and he said he was at a seed corn meeting last week and they said pink mold was what to watch out for with afla. He couldn't remember what the green was.

The elevators have the black light. From what little I know, if the elevator detects and rejects it, and they want coverage from insurance co, we get a sample and send it into a lab that does more testing than just a black light.