I worked in the Staunton area today. Early planted corn is knee high to mid thigh. Leaves were rolling this morning showing drought stress. My soil probe was finding moisture pretty easily. The problem is that the past few days, humidity has been very low. Wind speeds were 20-30 mph yesterday. Low humidity and high wind = high evapo-transpiration for these corn plants that are trying to grow rapidly. Drought stress should be relieved at night. The big question is, will this affect yield? I am not sure.
It is interesting that this area had 8 inches of rain in 3 weeks in late April and early May. As recently as 8 days ago, one of my clients in the area was deciding whether or not it was dry enough to spray his corn. Today, it was mildly drought stressed. How quickly conditions change. Is it any wonder that farmers seem to never be happy with the weather.
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