Cornshocks for Christmas?

As we travelled across Illinois on our way to St. Louis, we were shocked to see a fair amount of corn in the fields not yet harvested. Several weeks ago, I heard that the corn harvest was very late this year due to the extremely wet Spring. I imagine that seeing standing corn in December is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We also saw some machinery harvesting corn like mad, not a bad idea in advance of winter storms.