The wet weather of the last two weeks has led to difficult field conditions for farmers around Iowa.
According to the latest crop report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers were limited to 3.3 days of suitable field work last week, and it hasn’t improved much this week either. When they were able to get work done, farmers were seeding cover crops, chopping silage, and harvesting hay, seed corn, soybeans, and corn for grain. At this point, 90% of the corn crop has reached the dented stage or beyond, which is 17 days behind last year and nearly 2 weeks behind average. Meanwhile, only 2% of corn has been harvested for grain, 11 days behind average. Corn condition is rated 65% good to excellent. As for soybeans, 83% of the crop has begun coloring or beyond, nearly two weeks behind last year and nine days behind average. Just 3% of the soybean crop has been harvested, and the condition is rated 63% good to excellent.
ISU Extension Field Agronomist Meaghan Anderson says she unfortunately doesn’t have much good news for farmers in central Iowa, particularly if the rain persists. “It’s not just, are we going to have issues from the moisture from the standpoint of actually getting in the field? But this kind of moisture at this time of year can be especially troublesome for the crop as it sits in the field and waits to be harvested. And then the additional moisture isn’t good from the standpoint of standability of the crop. So we could have issues with corn that, if we can harvest it in a timely manner it’ll be fine, but if we get really delayed in harvest we could have issues with standability and issues with grain quality as well that are going to be concerning. We have to hope that this rain shuts off soon and we get some good conditions to actually get that crop out of the field in at least a fairly timely manner this fall.”
To hear more from Anderson about the current crop conditions, click the link below to listen to the Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with her.
https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2019/10/03/lets-talk-dallas-county-10-3-2019-meaghan-anderson/