Weekly Weather and Crop Update

I had a good idea what the weekly weather and crop update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca would show even before I read it. It was a cooler than normal week, in fact it was the coolest weather we have seen since late June. Temperatures averaged 67 degrees, 4 degrees below normal. Rainfall was only .14 inches and that was .92 inches below normal. Growing Degree Units totaled only 118.5, a whopping 17 percent below normal. On the positive side our yearly total Growing Degree Units is still 3 percent above normal at 1710.

Corn is through the critical pollination phase and is now in the R3, the milk stage, or R4, dough. Soybeans have progressed to the R4, full pod stage, or R5, beginning seed stage. So far, soybean aphids have reached treatment threshold levels in very few fields. Farmers and agronomists will continue intense scouting for a couple more weeks yet. Maybe this will be the third year in a row most farmers will not have the extra expense of spraying for soybean aphids?