This Week In Ag #125
Just step outside. It’s brutal. You’ll instantly know it’s “sweating season” across the South and much of the Midwest. Sure, temperatures are hot, consistently now in the upper 90s across the Delta. But it’s the humidity that instantly gets your attention and triggers sweat glands overload. The dew point – aka “the misery index” – indicates the temperature where dew forms: the higher the dew point, the more moisture is in the air. The National Weather Service defines dew points above 75 degrees as “oppressive.” That’s where we’ve consistently been across the Delta; most days reaching the upper 70s.
But humans aren’t the only ones sweating it out these days. So is corn. Much like us, corn has a natural cooling mechanism where it releases moisture from its leaves. A single corn stalk can emit four cups of water each day. That’s more sweat than I release while running a 5k! Although corn loses water as it cools, this transpiration process is vital in keeping the crops healthy and productive. As water is pulled up from the roots, it is transported throughout the plant and released through tiny pores in the leaves called stomata. In addition to transporting water, nutrients are also carried and dissolved in vital tissues throughout the plant.
One acre of corn can release up to 4,000 gallons of water each day. People in areas with high concentrations of corn can actually feel it, as those local heat indexes will rise due to the humidity produced by cornfields. Corn and soybean fields across the Corn Belt serve as a giant oxygen-producing, carbon-inhaling machine. Under the summer sun, and aided by crop nutrients and irrigation, there’s an amazing amount of photosynthesis going on from Ohio to Nebraska. Satellite images reveal fluorescence levels from the Corn Belt are currently 40% greater than those of the Amazon rainforest.
Related Posts
How Dry Conditions Drive #Plant25 Decisions
There’s an old saying in farming: “Plant in dust, your bins will bust”. The premise is that dry soils will encourage faster, deeper root growth early in the season, which will lead to more robust root systems and stronger plants throughout the growing season. Conversely, crops planted in ideal moisture conditions may become lazy and their roots remain shallow, causing potential problems later in the season when summer heat and dry conditions often arise. If that old adage is true, then Midwest farmers would be looking at a bumper crop in 2025. Then again, there’s dry, then there’s very dry.
This Week in Ag #46
A new year brings new hope and new predictions. Gazing into my crystal ball, here’s what’s taking shape in 2024: “Just in time” fertilizer application will continue. Granted, I still saw lots of knife-marked farm fields across Illinois while I was home for the holidays. But the practice of applying nutrients exactly when they are
The Privilege of Leading the Biostimulant Council
It is with immense pleasure and a sense of great responsibility that I address you as the newly appointed Chairman of the Biostimulant Council under The Fertilizer Institute (TFI). I am filled with gratitude for the decades-long association we have with TFI, an organization that has been an integral partner of Huma since the 1990s.
