The weather is expected to continue to be warm and dry throughout the rest of September which will set up the ideal conditions for harvest season. 

Guthrie County ISU Extension Field Agronomist Mike Witt says that harvest season is about on the same schedule as the five year average. Witt says that crops are drying down at a normal speed which will help harvest season in Guthrie and Greene counties. 

“The warm temperatures these last couple of days have really taken a lot of the moisture out of the crops. And really taken it out of the soybeans in particular, so soybeans are drying down in a more rapid pace. Now the next week and a half, two weeks we are looking kind of cooler temperatures which may slow that but again we are looking at different maturity groups of soybeans are going to be ready to go and people are going harvesting them in the next week or two so we are getting on the front end of this harvest season.”

Witt encourages farmers to adjust their combines accordingly because there will be a lot of variability in the fields with the drought conditions. According to the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report, last week there were 5.8 suitable fieldwork days.