May 9, 2013
This
past week northeast Iowa has gone through all four seasons in 7 days. The way the
year has been going it’s not a surprise. From snow last Thursday to 75 degree
weather yesterday this spring continues to throw us many curve balls. Take the
2-4” of rain along with 2-4” of snow we have received this past week and we are at another standstill. There has been some fertilizer spread, anhydrous
applied and some corn planted but the general consensus is it’s wet. As you can
see below the seven day does look fairly dry and with a little luck we can miss
the showers on Wednesday be back on track with spring field operations.
With planting
right around the corner there are a few things we should remember about corn germination
and emergence. Corn requires approximately 120 to 125 growing degree units (GDUs)
from planting to reach emergence, depending on soil temperatures. Corn must
absorb 30% of its weight in water to germinate. Seeds can absorb water at
temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but growth will not occur until soil
temperatures are 50 degrees or higher. As temperatures increase, the process
required for germination to progress occurs at a faster rate, leading to more
rapid emergence. Under ideal conditions, corn will emerge in ten days or less,
but with cooler soil temperatures the process may take three weeks or longer. The formula to calculate GDU’s is simply the
daily high temperature plus the daily low temperature minus 50 and then divided
by 2.
Also
this week at our Jackson location the construction on the dry fertilizer shed
has almost been completed. The construction of the building is complete now they
are waiting on the equipment to be installed inside the shed. The liquid
fertilizer tank is also nearing completion, the only steps left being to plumb the
unload/load system.
Thanks
for reading this week’s blog post. Don’t forget to stop by next week where
hopefully we are discussing planting progress in northeast Iowa.
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