06/03/2019
As we close the doors on May for the year, one of the biggest stories throughout the month was the precipitation. The entire state was above normal. Northwestern Indiana was 3.41” above normal and southeastern Indiana was 0.18” above normal for the month (Figure 1). Temperatures were near normal in the northern and above normal in the central and southern tiers of the state. Some stations in Central Indiana recorded rainfall on 24 out of 31 days.
Figure 1: Indiana Precipitation – Departure from Mean May 2019
The good news is that many areas saw dry conditions set in the last week of May and beginning of June and helped alleviate some of the saturated soils. This actually provided a very limited window of opportunity for the agriculture industry. Unfortunately, the weather looks to turn off wet again with 1 to 4 inches of rainfall projected through June 10th. The wet pattern looks to continue through the first three weeks of June with higher confidence in below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation (Figure 2 & 3).
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- Figure 2: 8-14 Day Temperature Outlook
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- Figure 3: 8-14 Day Precipitation Outlook
Taking this forecast into consideration, it is extremely important to keep an eye on vegetation as conditions may be favorable for disease development. Purdue Extension has various publications about disease management that may be utilized to assist with various diseases. For the row crop industry, producers should already be contacting insurance agents and agronomists to decide on their plan of action for the 2019 growing season. Hybrid maturities will definitely need to be reduced in the central and northern sections of the state. Dr. Bob Nielsen, Purdue Extension Corn Specialist, has a great article about decisions for late planted corn and can be found here: https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/articles_19/LatePlantedCorn.html
By: Austin Pearson, CED/ANR Educator Purdue Extension – Tipton County