Mother Nature has certainly not done any favors for farmers this season, as harvest remains behind schedule.

According to the latest crop condition report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture, as of last week 87% of corn has reached maturity, and just 15% has been harvested. Those figures are over two weeks and 11 days behind average, respectively. For soybeans, 94% has begun dropping leaves or beyond, which is nine days behind average. Last week, over 30% of the state’s soybean crop was harvested, bringing the total to 48%, five days behind average. The corn condition is rated 66% good to excellent, while the soybeans are rated 65%.

ISU Extension Field Agronomist Meaghan Anderson says the recent rain, cold, and high winds in central Iowa have done a fair amount of damage to the crops and are the primary reason why the harvest is progressing slowly. “(I’m) mostly concerned at this point about the standability of the corn, so how long is it going to stand up, especially with the high winds that we’ve had. Did those high winds put any of that corn on the ground that’s going to make it harder and even slower for harvest? And then as far as soybeans go, it’s just important to be able to get those out of the field. Because the longer they sit there when they’re mature, and the more rainfall we get on them with the temperature swings, we may see some issues with quality of the grain like we saw last fall. Hopefully not, though!”

Anderson adds, the cold temperatures have slowed the drying of crops, so she’s hopeful that some warmer temperatures over the weekend will be enough for farmers to get as much of their crop harvested as possible before the next cold snap.