Weekly Weather and Crop Update

After being outside at two county fairs last week I had a pretty good idea what the weekly weather and crop update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. Cool and cloudy pretty well describes last week's weather. Temperatures averaged 65.4 degrees, a whopping 5 degrees below normal. Rain fell on five days but totaled only .81 inches or .31 inches below normal. Growing degree units totaled only 107.5, which was 21 percent below normal. Our grand total since May 1 is 1876.5 growing degree units.

Even with the cool weather last week we are still 2 percent ahead of normal in growing degree units. Corn is in the R4 stage of development. It has accumulated about half of its mature dry weight. Soybeans are in the R5 stage or beginning seed. Typically beans will stop flowering and setting pods at this time of year. So, final yield will be determined by how well the pods fill or how big the beans are. We have plenty of moisture to finish this crop. Now all we need is warm sunshine!