On March 26, Dennis Todey, USDA Midwest Climate Hub Director and Jeff Coulter, UMN Extension corn agronomist, joined UMN Extension Crops Educator Angie Peltier for a discussion about current and forecasted weather conditions and considerations for a successful 2025 corn crop. This was the final weekly episode of the 2025 Strategic Farming: Let’s talk crops! series of webinars.
The USDA Midwest Regional Climate Hub, located in Ames, IA, is responsible for synthesizing and communicating weather and climate data in a useful and understandable fashion so that stakeholders can better mitigate weather and climate-related risks over a 10-state region, including Minnesota. Two of the Hub’s most recently developed tools are a soil temperature climatology tool and a historical freeze date tool. These tools provide geo-referenced data regarding the first, last and average dates that soil and air temperatures reach certain thresholds in spring and fall — useful information to have for those looking to maximize their crop’s yield potential while minimizing frost losses or making sure that a fall nitrogen application is safe from denitrifying or nitrifying microbes that can speed losses. To see the array of tools hub scientists have developed, visit: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/ midwest.
Dr. Todey supplied both current field conditions and spring and summer forecasts. According to Todey, “The last four months throughout much of Minnesota have been dry compared to normal, after a wet period last November.” While there are equal chances that April will have above or below average precipitation, June through August models show an increased chance of dryness.
Dr. Coulter provided his top 5 considerations for setting up the 2025 corn crop for success this spring including, 1) avoiding tillage and planting into wet soils, 2) trying to achieve uniform emergence, “If we have a plant that is one leaf stage behind the neighboring plants early in the season, the plant that is behind is only going to yield about 80% of what it normally would if it weren’t behind in development,” according to Coulter, 3) having a soil temperature of 45 °F and rising or trending stable at the time of planting, 4) paying attention to planting date and planting as early as soils are fit to maximize yield potential, and 5) targeting a 2-inch planting depth (dry soils = 2 ½ inches) and conserving soil moisture.
Coulter and Todey also answered numerous crop production and weather/climate questions that attendees asked either live or during registration.
For those who missed this session, it is now available to view on YouTube at: z.umn.edu/StrategicFarmingRecordings.
