Planting cold season cover crops after harvest has certainly taken off over recent years in Iowa. The success of these crops is highly dependent on how much warmth and rain is present after the harvest as well as the following spring season. The featured chart presents Growing Degree Day (GDD) totals between 15 October and the following 30 April for Mason City. For the context of a common cover crop of cereal rye, the GDD base of 40 degrees is chosen. The year labelled for the plot is the year of the 15th of October included in the period, so this past year's 2017 total shown is rather meager and about 200 units below long term average. The bottom panel presents the distribution of yearly totals with this recent year's total at about the 95th percentile for lowest value.

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Tags:   gdd   covercrop