Weekly Weather and Crop Update

Every week during the growing season the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca releases a weather and crop update. Air temperatures this past week averaged 55.1 degrees, which was 8.6 degrees above normal. That was a bit surprising because it sure seemed like it was cool last week. Maybe I am just remembering how nice and warm it was last year at this time. This is why I always read the weekly update from SROC. It is a reminder of average weather and conditions.

Corn needs a soil temperature of 50 degrees to germinate. Last week the soil temperature at the 2-inch depth averaged 53.7 degrees. On Tuesday the average was up to 59 degrees, but has been dropping. I am sure it will continue to drop with the cold rain and now lower temperatures in the forecast. Rainfall last week totaled 1.01 inches, which was .28 inches above normal. It sure would be nice to get two weeks of warm sunshine to get the corn planted.