The 2011 corn crop harvest is well underway in Iowa. One of the detrimental factors to this year's crop was a very hot stretch of weather in July during an important crop development stage. The featured chart looks at the number of days between two key stages in the corn development based on accumulated growing degree days from 1 May. Some suggest that longer the crop stays in this sweet spot for development, the more time the plant has to cycle water and nutrients leading to a better yield. The 19 days that it took this year tied the shortest period on record for Ames. Of course, there are caveats galore to this plot as corn could have been planted earlier or later than 1 May, also could have been a shorter or longer maturity variety, and crop physiology / genetics continue to improve.

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Tags:   corn   gdd