Molds The Effects of Wet Weather to Crops.

Amber Coulters article  Cool, Wet Fall Dampens Large Harvest  discusses the recent damage of wet weather to the harvest this season. Basically, quality is affected greatly and in turn, becomes equally harmful to animals. As for humans, the molds from these crops are perfectly safe.
   
The biological aspect of the article lies in its explanation of the molds that sprout during such wet and cool weather conditions in produce such as grains, as well as their effects on farm animals such as poultry and hogs since they use the same produce for livestock feeds. Basically, the article discusses two types of molds that grow on grain and affect its quality. Diplodia is the most prevalent among the two and is by far less harmful to farm animals, but it can still reduce grain quality. The other one is Gibberella which is quite harmful to livestock but not to humans. These two molds sprout in cooler and wetter regions around Dubois county. According to the article, a slow yet effective solution to the problem is drying it using drier grains and fans to prevent the mold from further spreading.
   
In my opinion, it is difficult to prevent molds from growing in grains during a cool and wet weather. They seem to thrive in such weather conditions and make them spread faster. Although the drying solution may be somewhat effective, it cannot fully prevent the spread of mold and the resulting quality loss in grains. It would be a waste to throw away poor quality grain, but it would also be quite unreasonable to use it to feed livestock and sell to humans. Adding safe chemicals may help reduce the occurrence of molds, but only if such products are produced. Seeing that livestock avoid feeds made from grains of such quality, it would be better not to sell such molds to buyers.