More and more crops in Greene County are being impacted by the dry weather conditions.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Zach Minnihan says there were some timely rains within the last month that may have helped some crop fields, but the areas with drier soil types, especially near the Raccoon River with sandy soils, weren’t able to capture as much of that precipitation. Minnihan notes because it’s been virtually dry this summer, the timeline for harvesting some of the corn could get pushed up.

“You may see some combines potentially here mid-September to go get some of this drought-stricken, stressed out (crops), especially corn. Because once that plant dies there’s nothing holding it up. So if we get any type of measurable wind it’s going to go down. So we’re advising (to) really watch it close. If you need to go get the combine to start picking corn before we pick (soy)beans, that’s the best advice we can give you.”

Minnihan adds that ten years ago in 2012, combines were harvesting corn on August 24th. 

According to the latest Crop and Condition Report from the Iowa Department Agriculture, statewide corn was 66-percent good to excellent, while soybeans were 62-percent good to excellent.