The harvest season continues at an accelerated rate in the Raccoon Valley Radio listening area. 

Guthrie County ISU Extension Field Agronomist Mike Witt says that soybeans are coming out at a rapid pace with yields looking fairly decent around the area. Witt also notes that the corn and soybean crop conditions are rated in that good to excellent range. He explains that the drought conditions in the area have been helpful for the harvest season. 

“Rain and moisture scenario would be that it would stay dry for farmers to be able to go out and harvest all of their crops. Then after we are done with harvest season, then they’re done with all their fall tillage or anhydrous operations and it cools down. Then we do need a significant amount of rain, but it’s not necessarily the volume of rain. It’s how that rain is going to come. And what I mean by that is if we get a two inch rainstorm, that’s not really going to help. We need deep, long soaking rains that allow that rain to really penetrate deeper into that profile.”

According to the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report, 55 percent of soybeans and 23 percent of corn statewide have been harvested. Also last week there were 6.5 suitable fieldwork days of harvesting row crops, drilling cover crops, tillage, and applying fall fertilizer.