GDDs July 24, 2020
Kevin Ganoe, Area Field Crop Specialist
Central New York Dairy and Field Crops
Each week we will be offering the air Growing Degree Days (GDDs) for corn that have accumulated to date from 13 locations across the team 8 county area. A thank you to our intern Peter Burritt for pulling this information together.
Four planting dates will be listed and included will be:
GDDs Season To Date
15 Year Average GDDs
30 Year "Normal" GDD
Period of Record - Max and min recorded GDDs for that time period
See: Growing Degree Day Calculator
Growing Degree Days for corn are Base 86/50 degree F and calculated by taking the average daily temperature, ((Daily Max Temp - Daily Min Temp)/2) - 50. But the maximum temperature cannot be more than 86 degree F and the minimum less than 50 degree F.
Planting date GDDs continue above the 15 year average and definitely above the 30 year "normal" for the date and the May 10 and 20 planting dates are near record GDDs for this date.
Tasseling/silking (1200-1300GDDs) has begun at many locations this week. Take note of tasseling dates as Joe Lawrence from the ProDairy Program indicates silage harvest is likely to begin about 800 GDDs for 101-110 day hybrids and 750 GDDs for 96-100 day hybrids after tasseling. Using these GDDs after tasseling to harvest and the Climate Smart Farming Website's 15 year GDD data we can start making projection as to when corn silage harvest might begin. If you have been seeing tasseling/silking in the past week you could look to start harvesting corn silage the last week of August or first week of September. That may still seem rough in terms of when to begin, but for planning purposes you should be making plans for an early start for corn silage harvest this year unless weather changes drastically to temps below the 15 year average. It is always hard to think of corn silage being too dry, especially after 2019, but think back to 2018 where dry matters actually started to get ahead of us at harvest which also began late August to early September.
Record Silking/Tasseling Dates for Corn Fields
Some of the greatest corn yield losses can occur from drought stress at tasseling/silking. As of July 23, all eight of our counties were listed in the abnormally dry category at the United States Drought Monitor site and much of Saratoga County indicated as moderate drought: NY State Drought Monitor Map
See the attached table for more of the July 24, 2020 results.
See the attached pdf for a good guide on corn development and our reference for growth stages.
GDDs July 24, 2020 (pdf; 436KB)
Visual Guide to Corn Development (pdf; 21544KB)
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New York State Fiber Conference
June 9, 2024
Bouckville, NY
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To date, there is limited information available about rental rates and fees for crop harvesting. Farms can use this valuable information for their farm business planning to help improve decision making and profitability.Farmers Can Join MeatSuite For Free!
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