Harvest season is moving along across the state and a local report from Greene County sees some initial yields for soybeans to be very good.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Dan Bjorklund says with Greene County farmers well above 30 percent of soybean fields have been harvested, as he describes how the yields for bushels per acre are showing.

“The yields have absolutely been fantastic! I think some individuals are getting maybe 10-15 bushels (per acre) better than what they thought they were going to get. I’ve heard a lot of 70s (and) I’ve heard a lot of 80s. Those are the kind of yields that you used to hear over in the Losses Hills in northwest Iowa. We’re just having phenomenal soybean yields right now.” 

Bjorklund looks back at his over 40 year career and how the recent crop production has fared compared to the first three decades.

“This is unusual for the fourth straight year now, I mean September, how many days did we have in the 80s (degrees) versus the 70s. It’s just very, very interesting. Just the (weather) patterns that we’ve been in has been perfect for fall harvest. So yeah it’s unusual especially when you take a span of 40 years but in the last ten it just seems like we kind of gone this direction a little bit.”        

Bjorklund believes that corn harvest is moving really fast this year with how dry the final month of the growing season was. He thinks that harvest could be completely wrapped up by the end of October.