Ask Carl: GDDs

Q: What’s the big deal about GDDs?

A: One of the important data points we track each season is the number of Corn Growing Degree Days accumulated since planting.

While heat does have some impact on soybeans as well, that impact is not nearly as pronounced as it is for corn. Even a casual observer can note the differences between the past two very cool summers and the summer we are currently experiencing. Last year at this time, much of the corn was just barely beginning to tassel while this year much of the early corn is fully pollinated.

Now clearly that means we are likely headed for a bigger crop and earlier harvest than we have experienced the past couple of years, but even more important over the long run are the implications for variety and hybrid performance. What are the odds that the plot winning lines in a year like 2009 are going to be the plot winners in 2010? Pretty slim. The radical differences between this year and last give real world meaning to the Peterson Farms Seed mantra: growers need hybrids and varieties that perform well over multiple year, multiple location testing and the only way to find those lines is through the kind of multiple year, multiple location testing that we perform. We don’t just say that because that is how we test. That is how we test because that is the only way to measure performance.

Have a question for Carl? Send it to Agronomy@PetersonFarmsSeed.com