Weekly Weather and Crop Update

It was interesting to read the Weekly Weather and Crop Update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca this week as out temperatures warmed up closer to normal. Temperatures averaged 62.9 degrees which was only .8 degrees below normal. It was a dry week as no rainfall fell and that was .86 inches below normal. Growing Degree units totaled 101.5 and that was 4 percent below normal. Since the first of May we have accumulated 2282.5 Growing Degree Units. For the year we are only 2 percent below normal.

The warm weather, days getting shorter and sunshine is really moving the corn and beans toward maturity. Many bean fields are turning yellow which means they will be mature quite soon. Many of the full season corn hybrids planted in early May are about half milk line. That means we need a couple more weeks of warm weather and no frost for corn to reach physiological maturity. With no cold weather in the longer range forecast we may be "home Free."