Knee high plus

As I traveled through the Nation's Heartland last week I got an upclose look at the expansive corn fields in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Standing on the 13th tee, bordering a corn field in Brownburg, Indiana, we determined that the corn was at least waist high, perhaps chest high.

The maturation of the crop really took off last week with the heat and moisture. Though we had precipitation on six of seven days last week in the Twin Cities, we are still well below normal for the month of June. Saturday morning's rainfall of a half inch was much welcomed.

Ag experts monitor the number growing degree days as measure of the corn's maturing. So far this growing season, Indianapolis has had 1433 growing degree days, while central Minnesota has had about 1050 through last Saturday. In addition, central Indiana has tallied more than twenty inch of rain since April 1st, compared to less than five inches at Twin Cities International airport.

A corn growing degree day (GDD) is an index used to express crop maturity. The index is computed by subtracting a base temperature of 50 F from the average of the maximum and minimum temperatures for the day. Minimum temperatures less than 50 F are set to 50, and maximum temperatures greater than 86 F are set to 86. These substitutions indicate that no appreciable growth is detected with temperatures lower than 50 or greater than 86.

The outlook for our region of the country seems to favor below normal temperatures and below normal precipitation into the second week of July. Check out the six to ten day outlook.

CE

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