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Heat wave comes at a critical time for corn

This long spell of hot and dry weather comes at a bad time for corn, which is just entering its critical pollination stage across much of the Midwest.

Dennis Todey, director of USDA’s Midwest Climate Hub, says the forecasts don’t show much letup in those hot conditions.

“Not only during the daytime, where we’re going to have repeated days in the 90’s, but also likely very warm nights as we have quite humid conditions,” Todey says. “Corn is transpiring quite well at this point—it has the moisture available—so those are both going to work against us.”

Todey says if current conditions continue much longer, corn yields will likely be impacted.

“On our agronomy call yesterday our crops guy was not as concerned about pollination itself, but definitely grain size and grain fill—that if we stayed warm, then we had even more concern about the impact on yield.”

Todey say while most forecasters agree that hot conditions will continue for the next several days, there is less agreement on the chances for rain and just where that rain may fall.