While a wet spring across Iowa caused a delay in farmers’ planting season, a later harvest than desired is also expected this fall.

Corn and soybean maturity is 19 days and 11 days behind last year and two weeks and eight days behind average, respectively. ISU Extension and Outreach Field Agronomist Mike Witt says some farmers have started harvesting corn, while most have harvested some hay and seed corn, “Actual corn and soybeans that farmers would use for production, it really depends on their maturity groups and things that they’ve planted. I would say that you would probably see some starting to come out by the beginning of October timeframe. There will obviously always be a few that come out here not too long, there’s always some are getting pulled early, but corn is still pretty high moisture right now so people won’t get that out as much and as early as they want to.”

Witt adds, corn and soybean progress is a mixed bag across Guthrie County because of varying planting times and who were able to get started early. While on average, Witt says the county has gotten a good amount of precipitation and favorable temperatures this growing season, he is wary of a possible wet fall ahead.