Despite drought conditions and the impacts from the derecho storm on crops, Greene County’s harvest continues to pick up steam.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Zach Minnihan describes how the harvest season is developing, even though there is a wide range of challenges that farmers are facing.

“Harvest, I would say, is moving along pretty quickly. Our yields are off just a little bit, they’re on the lower side. Soybeans, I would say are almost 60-70-percent done for around here (in Greene County). And then corn, it’s kind of hard to tell because it’s taking a little longer to get to some of this corn.”

Minnihan points out early yield projections are about 20-percent down compared to last year. He talks about the quality of the corn that was impacted by the storm.

“I think our quality of grain on this damaged stuff is better than what we may be initially thought. But I think most guys are fairly pleasantly surprised on some of this down or sideways laying corn. They’re actually able to get it and it’s going a little bit better than originally anticipated.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Iowa Crop Progress and Condition report as of last week, corn was rated 45-percent good to excellent and soybeans were 49-percent good to excellent. Minnihan believes that the majority of harvest in Greene County will be completed by the end of October.