After this year’s record heat wave, the weather has been relatively mild for the Raccoon Valley Radio listening area, suiting the crop growing season well.

The most recent crop update from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that Iowa had unseasonable dryness and cooler than normal conditions. ISU Extension Field Agronomist Mike Witt shares how area crops are doing after a later than average planting season,

“Well, the weather has actually been very good for crops because we’ve been getting warm days and kind of cool nights so that’s really good for helping development of yields and helping for the development of the plants. And for the pollination window on those late season pollination really, really hot temperatures can cause some issues when it comes to pollination and seed fill and things like that. And so the weather has been doing really well.”

Witt adds a drawback to these conditions is the potential for disease to move into corn crops from gray leaf spots, which he has seen pop up in Guthrie County among others. Witt urges farmers to scout their fields, and apply fungicides if needed on corn and soybeans.