Track your current and past Growing Degree Days (GDD) to help with crop scouting for pests using a new tool developed through the joint efforts of Monsanto and The Weather Channel.

Since the January launch of The Weather Channel’s ‘Agriculture News & Forecast’ web page, growers who used the site requested the addition of a GDD calculator. To access the tool, simply enter your zip code (or sign in to your Weather Channel home page) and click the Growing Degree Days Calculator link.

“The growth and development of crops is directly impacted by the growing degree days, and having this information available can help farmers make better informed management decisions,” said Boyd Carey, lead of technology development for Monsanto. “TWCi has created an easy way for growers to run those calculations to compare different years at a given location. In a spring like this one where we’ve had so much rain and so many cloudy days across our agricultural production areas, this tool could prove useful immediately.”

Farmers can compare two different years’ GDD (as far back as 2003) for the same date range and location. Additionally, each calculation — one of the most complex on weather.com — includes the 30-year-average GDD for the selected dates and location, alerting farmers to the typical GDD for the selected time frame and location. The calculator uses both forecast and 30-year climatology data from The Weather Channel, allowing for past, present or future calculations. The calculator draws from the most accurate weather data available, using proprietary TruPoint technology created by The Weather Channel. TruPoint forecasts allow for future weather information accurate up to 2 kilometers (1.24 miles). This technology combines traditional weather observations with even more data to create forecasts for more than 1.9 million locations — literally filling in the gaps of the reporting systems used by other providers.