Following a late planting season, most of the crops in Greene County are progressing along.

The large amount of rainfall and consistently high temperatures in the mid 80s to 90s in the last couple of weeks have helped spur along the corn crop. Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Zach Minnihan says on his farm, he is about three-inches ahead of the ten-year average for rainfall, so he believes Greene County is doing well for moisture levels.

“We stayed warm. It didn’t sit stagnant, cold, wet and rainy, once it warmed up, it stayed warm. Our corn crop just shot out of the ground and in this last month, I mean it’s been putting a leaf on every four to six days. We had one of the warmest Mays on record, which really helps our crop get growing faster, which in turn, we’re looking at shoulder-high by (July) 4th instead of knee-high, for the old saying.” 

He points out that areas of fields where there is ponding could lead to some potential dangers like rotting and nutrient loss.

“We’re going to start looking really hard (at) here, and have been, is kind of disease growth, with these wet and saturated fields. We are warm and disease kind of likes it kind of a little bit cooler. But I would say to anybody in the next two weeks, check your fields for disease pressure and stability.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Iowa reports there was an average of 4.7-suitable days of field work last week across the state. For corn, about 84-percent is rated good to excellent condition, while soybeans are 80-percent good to excellent.