Weekly Weather and Crop Update

Reading the Weekly Weather and Crop Update from the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca for last week I was not surprised to see we set a couple records. Remember how warm it was late last week and over the weekend. Two records were set for the high temperature on September 23rd and 24th. In addition on those two days records were set for the highest daily low temperature. For the week air temperatures averaged 68.5 degrees or 10.9 degrees above normal.

A couple weeks ago farmers were very concerned that the corn crop would reach maturity because August was so cool. The warm sunshine took care of those concerns. Last week we accumulated 128 growing degree units which was more than double the average for a week in late September. Since May 1st we have accumulated 2528.5 growing degree units. That is about 65 growing degree units above our seasonal average. Even a full season 106 day corn hybrid has reached maturity if it was planted in late April or early May.