Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is the perfect time to celebrate our country’s independence, show off some patriotism, spend time with family and friends, watch fireworks — and, of course, check crops.

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops. It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July." Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year. In fact, our family has been taking an annual "Knee High" photo for over a decade (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops. It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July." Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year. In fact, our family has been taking an annual "Knee High" photo for over a decade (see 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops. It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July." Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year. In fact, our family has been taking an annual "Knee High" photo for the last decade (see 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops.  It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July."  Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year (see 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops.  It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July."  Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year (see 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops.  It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July."  Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year (see 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, show off your patriotism, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks and check crops.  It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July."  Now while knee high isn't the benchmark for farmers anymore due to hybridization and improved genetics, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year (see 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

Knee High by the 4th of July

The 4th of July is a great time to celebrate our country's independence, spend time with family and friends, shoot off fireworks (especially after Iowa made it legal this year), and check our crops.  It's been tradition for decades that farmers check their crops, especially corn, to see if it is "Knee High by the 4th of July."  Now while knee high isn't the benchmark farmers are necessarily wanting now and the goal is more like chest high, it is still a fun tradition for our family to benchmark our corn (and family's) growth every year (see 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012).

We hope you all have had a great Independence Day!  What are some of your favorite family traditions for the 4th of July?  Remember to Comment for a Cause.

Knee High by the 4th of July

Knee high by the 4th of July is an old farmer saying and benchmark for a good corn crop.  But with improved seed genetics and farming practices, farmers expect their corn to be at least waist high if not head high (or higher, like we are seeing this year) on our farm in North Iowa.

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It has become tradition for us to take a Knee High by the 4th of July photo every year.  It is a fun way to document our farm family, as well as our crop progress for the year.  Check out past years - 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.  This year's corn crop looks the most similar to 2012, but add three more kids!

We hope you all had a great Independence Day!  What was the best part of your day?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Knee High by the 4th of July

It has become tradition for us to take a Knee High by the 4th of July photo every year.  It is a fun way to document our farm family, as well as our crop progress for the year.  Check out past years - 2014, 2013, 2012.

Knee high by the 4th of July is an old farmer saying and benchmark for a good corn crop.  But with improved seed genetics and farming practices, farmers expect their corn to be at least waist high if not head high, like we are seeing this year on our farm in North Iowa.

We had to pull out the selfie stick too and take a photo in the corn!
Me, LP, MP, My Farmer and JP

We hope you all had a great Independence Day!  What was the best part of your day?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Knee High by the 4th of July

I do have to admit, I was a little worried that our annual "Knee High by the 4th of July" photo this year was going to show corn that wasn't knee-high, but half-way surprisingly, it was higher than I expected.  In a "normal" year, we'd like to see our corn shoulder or head high (see previous year's photos for examples - 2013 & 2012), but this year, due to the extreme wet conditions, our corn is only waist high.  We are actually planning on getting into the field today to do some work which would be the first time in several weeks because it has been too wet to get into the field.

Knee High by the 4th of  July

And if you are curious what an ear of corn looks right now, below is a photo.  After our family photo we did some crop scouting and peeled a corn stalk all the way down to the ear of corn.  Pretty neat right?  It is amazing that that will cob of corn will grow 8"+ in length in just a couple of months.

Ear of corn on the 4th of July

I hope you all had a great Independence Day!  Do you have any 4th of July traditions?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Knee High by the 4th of July

What a great Independence Day weekend!  I have so much I want to update you all on!  My Farmer, LP, MP and I traveled to East-Central Iowa to visit some college friends over the 4th and 5th (where we were able to mark off an item off our Summer Bucket List!) and then had fun at our local town's celebration on the 6th.  It was a busy weekend but it was a lot of fun!  Look for posts on both later this week!

As for today, I can't not share a mini "Independence Day" and "Farm Friday" update rolled into one "Monday after the 4th of July" post!  The old saying is that corn should be "knee high by the 4th of July."  In reality, corn is usually head-high and tasseling.  This year we are inbetween those two measurements.

I do have to admit, there for awhile I was afraid the corn wasn't going to be "knee-high by the 4th of July" but due to warm weather the last couple of weeks, the corn and soybeans actually got a chance to get some sunlight and have grown a lot over that time.  Now comparing our 4th of July photo from this year to last year you can see that our corn is behind in maturity.  It wasn't too far from now last year though that the rain stopped and we entered a drought.  Hopefully that doesn't repeat this year, otherwise our crops will be hurting come fall harvest.  I'm just happy that we were able to make it through this wet spring and get everything planted this year.  Those last two sentences I wrote I think can be summed up from a quote from Will Rogers:

"The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer."

Hope you all had a great Independence Day!