It’s been a whirlwind so far this year for crop producers and farmers.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Zach Minnihan says with planting season about two-weeks behind compared to last year, but having as warm of temperatures in May and excessive rainfall in June, the corn crop has caught up to the pace it was at last year and has even pushed ahead in some respects.

“We’re sitting at a ten-day forecast of nice and warm (days) and cooling down at night. So our pollination should be, if the weatherman is correct, we should have great pollination weather which is pretty critical to end of the year yields.”

In regards to ponding on fields, Minnihan says decisions can still be made by farmers whether or not to re-plant the crop or plant a cover crop for weed control. However, oversaturated soils have started showing signs of stress on cornstalks.

“Saturated soils or even corn that is under water, it’s not going to be allowed to take up proper nutrients. The big one is potassium. There’s no oxygen in those saturated soils, so your plant basically cannot take up proper nutrients.”

Minnihan’s main concern going forward is standability with the maturity level of the corn crop as progressive as it has been, may lead to an early harvest, but still be very wet when it comes time to combine it in the fall.