Watering corn in the UK is not a high priority, especially in view of the very low corn prices, but in some areas it is necessary, to produce any crop at all. Most growers water corn before the more valuable crops need it. However as can be seen below there was no need to water this crop until about the middle of May when the potatoes also needed it.

Watering when it is not necessary is very wasteful and it shows the value of good monitoring.

This first graph shows the water content to 50cm. The rainfall in early April refilled the soil (water reaches 50cm) and it stayed close to 'full' until early May, when water use can be seen - mostly in the top 30cm. From mid-May the available water in the top 30cm. had been used and water use begins at 50cm. Note that as soon as it rained again water use stopped at 50cm

As the grower was not monitoring below 50cm one does not know what was happening there, but on this soil it is unlikely to be much.

The next graph is a combined one of the top 50cm of soil. What is most interesting is how much water the crop can extract from the soil (65%) - i.e dried from 114mm to 41mm without any apparent slow down in water use.

However, it may well be that the plant would like to have used more water if it was available. On some soils there is no doubt that the corn would just go deeper to find more water. (This explains why good deep soils tend to produce better crops.)

This next graph is from a crop of over wintering wheat. You can see that the rain in April was quickley used and that by the 2nd May there was no water use in the top 30cm (where all the fertiliser is likely to be)