Cleanup continues across Iowa this week and farmers are working with their crop insurance adjusters and agronomists after last week’s derecho caused severe crop damage in the Raccoon Valley Radio-listening area.

ISU Extension and Outreach Field Agronomist Mike Witt says Guthrie County experienced varying degrees of damage to corn fields, and he says due to drought conditions he was already estimating 25-50% yield loss this season. He describes how the storm has affected the crop, “Anything that is broken over that’s going to probably be considered a yield loss or a very high percentage of that will be lost yield, because that grain will obviously be lying in the field. But the stuff that is bent over I would say there is a significant yield loss that is going to happen with that, coupled with the fact we were having the drought which hasn’t gone anywhere so that was making the ears bad and a lot of yield loss to begin with.”

This week’s Crop Progress and Condition Report from the USDA states that corn and soybeans have the lowest ratings so far of the season with corn rated 59% good to excellent, a drop of 10 percentage points from the previous week, and soybeans rated 62% good to excellent. Pasture condition also fell to 33% good to excellent.