Weekly Weather and Crop Update

I always look forward to reading the Weekly Weather and Crop Update each week sent out by the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. It is nice to see the weather summary and growing degree units accumulated compared to normal along with rainfall. Last week we saw temperatures much above normal after a very cool April and May. That was exactly what the corn and soybeans needed!

Temperatures averaged 75.8 degrees and that was a whopping 9.6 degrees above normal! Growing degree units totaled 170 which was 55 percent above normal. Since May 1 we have accumulated 531 growing degree units. That puts us 9 percent ahead of normal plus most of the corn accumulated 40 or 50 growing degree units in April before the growing season "officially" began!

Rainfall last week was 1.25 inches and that was only .17 inches above normal. Corn is in about the V7 leaf stage and very soon will be growing very rapidly. Hopefully there are no severe thunderstorms as corn is vulnerable to green snap when it is growing rapidly. Soybeans are in the V1 to V3 leaf stage,