IARN — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is monitoring crop development in the Midwest as Ag areas deal with drought concerns and cooler than average temperatures.
What kind of impact will colder-than-usual weather have on planted crops in the Midwest? Here’s USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey.
“At this point, emergence numbers are quite low,” said Rippey. “Temperatures that could be in the mid-20s to lower 30s will certainly slow the emergence and early season growth of those crops. We are experiencing some unusually cold weather starting to reach into the upper Midwest. On Tuesday morning May 4th, we saw low temperatures into the mid-20s across the eastern Dakotas. In only very few cases will we experience a situation where the young crops are burned back to the point where replanting might need to take place.”
Rippey has the National Weather Service’s outlook for the middle of May.
“As we’ve moved into early May, we have seen cool air start to settle across parts of the country,” said Rippey. “The question is how long that cool weather will last. Looking ahead to the week two outlook covering the time period of May 11th through the 17th, it looks like that cool weather may be fairly persistent into the middle of the month. Much of the country expecting near or below normal temperatures. That would include the Rockies, the Northern and Central Plains, much of the Midwest and the Northeast.”
For more information visit usda.gov.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
