ISWS provides specialized tools to assist Illinois growers in optimizing agricultural practices. These calculators help track crop growth, predict pest development, and manage soil nitrogen, empowering users with precise, data-driven insights to improve decision-making and enhance agricultural outcomes.
Daily Crop Growing Degree-Day Accumulations
To help farmers project crop growth and manage planting timelines, ISWS has developed a growing degree-day calculator. Using temperature data from the Illinois Climate Network, the tool provides daily degree-day accumulations specific to crop types and locations across Illinois. By comparing daily temperature data with a crop-specific baseline, the tool estimates growth stages to predict crop maturity dates. These data, along with one- and two-week degree-day projections, support precise planting and harvesting decisions based on up-to-date climate data.
Daily Pest Degree-Day Accumulations
The pest degree-day calculator is a crucial tool for managing agricultural insect pests of commodity and specialty crops. Farmers can select the pest and location to access pest development projections to determine effective pest management strategies aligned with pest life cycles. Updated with weather forecasts from the National Weather Service, the calculators provide degree days as well as 7-day forecasts. Seasonal maps for the Japanese beetle, brown marmorated stinkbug, and corn flea beetle are available on the Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring website. Farmers can identify vulnerable crop stages and take action to protect yields.