U2U Decision Support Tools for Midwestern Corn Producers

A number of tools have been developed for Midwestern Corn Producers as part of the USDA-supported U2U Useful to Usable Project for transforming climate variability and change information for cereal crop producers. These tools include: 1) the AgClimate View of climate and yield trends; 2) the Corn Growing Degree Day (GDD) tracker; 3) the Climate Patterns Viewer for examining ENSO relationships in the Midwest; 4) the Corn Split Nitrogen calculator; and 5) the Probable Fieldwork Days estimator. These tools were developed based on producer surveys and focus groups. The effectiveness of these tools were evaluated with surveys during training events. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the process while focusing primarily on the fully operational Corn GDD. This tool combines both historical data and NWS CFSv2 ensemble forecasts to project accumulated GDD for the rest of the growing season. This tool can be used to identify climate risks such as spring and fall frost, plan growing season activities such as spraying or nitrogen application, as well as aiding in marketing decisions such as seed selection and crop insurance.