Eye-high by the Fourth of July

Joel DeJong is in favor of tweaking one of the Midwest's most well known sayings.

"I'm 6' 6" and I've got some cornfields looking me in the eye," he said. "Eye-high by the Fourth of July is really where we'd see a lot of cornfields right now."

This year's crop is progressing well, said the Iowa State University Extension & Outreach field agronomist. Great growing conditions and adequate precipitation amounts have made corn sprout high in recent weeks, and with warm temperatures heading into tasseling season, DeJong expected things to keep moving in the right direction.

"I like mid-80s for tass...