Warm

It is so warm it is hard to find a cool spot. We found one last night at a family get together at Caesar Creek Park. It was just cool enough to eat and not sweat.

These warm nights are affecting our crops, too. Some of my corn has short ears in a long shuck and others have missing spots on the cob to stress. It isn't the bumper crop we had last year but some people have a pretty good crop.

"High night temperatures (in the 70s or 80s) can result in wasteful respiration and a lower net amount of dry matter accumulation in plants. The rate of respiration of plants increases rapidly as the temperature increases, approximately doubling for each 13 degree F increase. With high night temperatures more of the sugars produced by photosynthesis during the day are lost; less is available to fill developing kernels, thereby lowering potential grain yield. High night time temperatures result in faster heat unit (GDD) accumulation that can lead to earlier corn maturation, whereas cool night temperatures result in slower GDD accumulation that can lengthen grain filling and promote greater dry matter accumulation and grain yields.

Past research at the University of Illinois indicates that corn grown at night temperatures in the mid-60s outyields corn grown at temperatures in the mid-80s. Corn yields are often higher with irrigation in western states, which have low humidity and limited rainfall. While these areas are characterized by hot sunny days, night temperatures are often cooler than in the Eastern Corn Belt. Low night temperatures during grain fill have been associated with some of Ohio’s highest corn yields in past years. Last year, when the highest corn average yield to date were achieved, 174 bu/A, Ohio experienced one of its coolest Julys on record. The cool night temperatures may have reduced respiration losses during early grain fill and lengthened the rain fill period."

That's what Pete Thomison had to say this week in the CORN Newsletter. I do agree. I even saw planes applying fungicide to corn and soybeans east of here a week ago trying to reduce the ethylene gas production or dark respiration of crops last week. Many of us say this is a fungicide year which means the conditions are right to make foliar fungicides work. Time will tell but I would say they didn't waste their money. What their return on investment is will be revealed when the crop is harvested.

I started a real fire storm on a few threads I posted or emailed this week. If you want to see one of them, take 30 minutes to see what a good Australian farmer said at a meeting some time ago about controlled traffic and tramlines. I think the same applies to all soil management regardless of rainfall.

I can show you smaller crops and more weeds in every track in the fields.

I put the old Bird Hybrid sign up for prosterity. Leon merged with Denzler Hybrids in Indiana and now the company is First Choice Seeds. This hybrid was B-58 and now is FC 58. I hope and think I banked on the right hybrid this year but the combine will also reveal that, too.

Ed