Missouri growers are welcoming the cooler temperatures and crops are looking better where there was a decent amount of rain. After several weeks of no rain, crops were showing signs of stress.
Tarkio grower Kevin Hurst, in Northwest Missouri’s Atchison County, tells Brownfield his corn was turning gray and leaves were starting to roll – until the half inch of rain that fell on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
Hurst tells Brownfield, “The corn really enjoyed the drink and it has perked up and really looks nice.”
Hurst says winds of 20 to 40 miles an hour out of the southeast had dried out his topsoil quite a bit, although the subsoil seemed to be okay. His corn is waist-high now but it had some insect pressure earlier on.
“You know, it warmed up so quick and was so worm that the cutworms were out. We had a few stalks cut off here and there but nothing, you know, that we had to go in and replant and nothing significant.”
Hurst’s soybeans have been showing varying levels of stress.
“We have beans that are an inch tall, three leaves or whatever, down to just breaking the ground, to gaps where they’re not up — all in the same row.”
Hurst expects the cooler weather and rain to perk up the soybean crop as well. Hurst is vice chairman of the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council. Dryness and warmer than normal temperatures are expected to return to Missouri through much of next week.
© Copyright 2012 Brownfield, All rights Reserved. Written For: Brownfield
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