It's been a long time since Michigan's corn crop looked as bad as it does this year. More than half of the crop is in poor to very poor condition according to the USDA, and there are fields that won't produce much of anything. Jim Zook of the Michigan Corn Growers Association says southwest Michigan is in the worst shape of anywhere in the state.
Zook says it takes about 22 inches of rain for corn to grow from seedling all the way through harvest. The National Weather Service says for Benton Harbor, just over six-tenths of an inch of rain has fallen this summer through its latest posting date of July 11, nearly four inches below normal. For the year, we're four and a half inches below normal, and the NWS is predicting a severe drought the rest of the summer from Berrien County to Kalamazoo all the way to Grand Rapids.
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Zook says it takes about 22 inches of rain for corn to grow from seedling all the way through harvest. The National Weather Service says for Benton Harbor, just over six-tenths of an inch of rain has fallen this summer through its latest posting date of July 11, nearly four inches below normal. For the year, we're four and a half inches below normal, and the NWS is predicting a severe drought the rest of the summer from Berrien County to Kalamazoo all the way to Grand Rapids.
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