Crop Scene Investigation - 32: A puzzling 'crop square' - Solved or not?

Friday, May 6, 2011

by BERNARD TOBIN

In the March issue of Better Farming we asked readers if they could help crop consultant Merv Erb solve a puzzling "crop square" he investigated in a corn field near Topping in Perth County last October.

What struck Erb about this field was the level of detail and precision in the flattened area, which measured 16 rows wide and 45 feet long. He observed that every row had been flattened in the opposite direction – one row toward the north, followed by a row to the south. He also noted that every two rows seemed to be laid into each other and almost intertwined. There was no evidence of human activity at the site.

Erb was also perplexed by how the corn stalks had been snapped off near the ground at the second node, just above the brace roots. "You can't go into a field and literally break corn off at its nodes," he said. And there was no answer for why the flattened rows divided or parted  in a circular fashion at both ends of the square.

But our readers were up to the challenge. While some attributed this masterful execution to some clever raccoons or light-footed humans, others chimed in with some weighty theories. Jay Curtis, St.Thomas, suggested the deed could have been done with an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) – a quad runner or gator. He believes the wheel spacing on these rigs "would bring both rows in as it is forced under the machine."

Dave Emery, Chatham-Kent, had a theory based on planter failure. "The injury looks to be associated with starter fertilizer. The injured corn did not receive the same amount of starter fertilizer (if any) in comparison to the surrounding crop. This could have been caused by a planter malfunction, or operator error."

Another unidentified reader mused that planter problems was an obvious guess, but that didn't explain why the plants would "produce cobs to near maturity (as evidenced by sprouted cobs) before the event and then systematically fall down in a defined systematic pattern." This reader did have a theory: "I suspect a more uncommon event than GPS-guided coons or other wildlife. Maybe a lightning strike and high wind – possibly in some combination with stage of crop and or fertility."

Reader John Good's thinking was more in line with Erb's theory. Good wrote: "the corn was flattened by a severe downburst of wind which broke some stalks off at ground level. The reason that some rows were lying in different directions was the twisting, swirling action of the wind caused by sudden change in atmospheric conditions at that specific location."

The final word goes to Merv Erb. He says there's no way to prove his theory, but the evidence suggests that something else was at work here other than raccoons, humans, ATVs and problematic planters.

"Based on all the research I've done, I would look toward England where most of these circles occur for an answer," explains Erb. "People have set up cameras during the night to monitor these things and they have found that they seem to be linked to some sort of flash in the sky during the night, some sort of atmospheric event. Some cameras show that the flash can take as little as 4/1000ths of a second – the phenomenon can happen that fast."

Thanks to everyone who contributed. John Good, Baden, is the winner of our reader prize, a wireless weather station. BF