News

Avoid corn planting, grazing amid the coming freeze

The freezing temperatures expected over the next week or more could set records in some areas. Pat Guinan, University of Missouri climatologist tells Brownfield Ag News, “When we have temperatures in the middle part of April that dip into the middle, perhaps even upper 20s, you’re talking about near record LOW temperatures.”

And that’s following near record high, summer-like temperatures in many areas the past few days.

MU specialist Bill Wiebold cautions farmers NOT to plant corn in the freezing temperatures as tempting as it is right now, because water can rush in and cause a lot of damage in the first 48 hours of planting, “It can kill that young seedling.”

Valerie Tate, University of Missouri Extension specialist in North Central Missouri, says that means livestock producers shouldn’t turn their animals out too early, “Especially with that cold weather they’re expecting the next couple of weeks. Those plants are going to really slow down and if we graze them off really short in early April, it’ll have an effect on those plants through the rest of the spring.” Tate is in Linn County Missouri about 50 miles south of the Iowa border.

Tate, Wiebold and Guinan spoke with producers on an M-U Extension
online meeting today.