Knee-high by the first of July. It is an old saying that farmers use to determine how their corn crop is faring. 

Marc Hutlet of Marc Hutlet Seeds at Ste. Anne says there were definitely some fields in the southeast that reached that mark. As you may recall, there were only a few different windows this spring when it was dry enough to seed. He notes for those producers who managed to seed around the May 18th window, their corn looks solid and is on par with the knee-high analogy. 

But, for the other corn fields, Hutlet says there is tremendous variability.

"I've never really seen a year where I've had such inconsistency and variability within the region with our corn crop," says Hutlet. 

He notes the light soil is saturated and there was some seed rot. Hutlet says the corn is also having trouble taking up nitrogen and so the plants do not have a dark green look this summer. Hutlet says in some cases the corn that was planted later is now looking better than the earlier seeded fields. He notes some of the earlier seeded corn lay in the saturated ground for a prolonged period, stunting its early growth.

Having said that, Hutlet says a lot of the corn that was seeded later will be used for feed and should be of good quality.

As for insect concerns, Hutlet says there have been a few issues with cutworm, though not much has been reported in the corn crops. He notes hail last month will bring some common smut to the corn crop because of leaf structure damage. 

Meanwhile, with regards to soybeans, Hutlet says that crop can handle the moisture. He notes the beans took off when the conditions were wetter and are doing okay. 

"They may not be terribly tall in some of that late-planted stuff but they are coming along," he adds. "I'm not worried about them too much in these wetter conditions, they will be fine."

Hutlet says corn and soybeans are much more tolerant to 30-degree temperatures than some of the other crops. However, he notes what canola growers do not want right now is temperatures of 33 or 34 degrees and then a howling wind. Hutlet says then the canola, which is finally starting to come back into a good growing stage, will bloom for a very short period of time. On the flip side, if the corn and soybean fields have some moisture and temperatures in the high 20s or low 30s, they will prosper.

Hutlet says the percentage of unseeded acres in the southeast was less than five per cent this spring.