Weekly Weather and Crop Update

The temperatures were about perfect for crop development last week with an average of 71.5 degrees which was .2 degrees warmer than normal. We accumulated 149 growing degree units and that was 2 percent above normal. Since May 1 we have accumulated 1605.5 growing degree units and that puts us 8 percent above normal. Small grain harvest underway and reports are pretty good yields and quality which is a little surprising with the really warm temperatures we saw in June and July.

It had been dry for about 3 weeks so farmers were hoping for a nice rain. We maybe didn't need 4.5 inches when the normal rainfall for the week is about 1 inch. I heard many rain reports of 5 to 6 inches and some isolated areas received up to 10 inches! It sure looks like the corn in our area made it through the critical pollination period with about perfect weather.

It looks like the corn and soybean crop are more advanced than the growing degree units would suggest? That could be explained by the amount of solar radiation we have gotten the last couple months. There have been very few cloudy days in June and July.