Crop conditions have declined across the state, even as rainfall came back into the Raccoon River Valley area.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Iowa’s corn fell to just 75-percent good to excellent condition, which was down from 78-percent from last week. Soybean conditions also dropped slightly to 74-percent good to excellent, and it was at 77-percent the previous week. Iowa farmers had an average of six working days in the fields last week, which included activities like harvesting oats and hay for grain and spraying for aphids. Hay conditions also saw a drop this last week to 61-percent from good to excellent, down from 68-percent the previous week.

According to the National Weather Service, after having a drier July in both Perry and Guthrie Center, both communities are past their halfway points of normal precipitation for August. In July, Perry recorded 2.20-inches of rainfall, which was below the 4.42-inches of normal precipitation, while in August, they’ve already had 0.66-inches of rainfall and the normal average is 0.80-inches for the month. In Guthrie Center, normal rainfall totals for July are 4.86-inches and they only had 2.05-inches, and in August, Guthrie Center has already seen 0.55-inches, with the normal monthly total being 1.06-inches. There’s no official information available for Jefferson.