Greene County is nearing the end of harvest season in a rather challenging year.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Zach Minnihan tells Raccoon Valley Radio soybeans are about 95-percent harvested, while corn is about 85-percent complete. He says due to drought and the derecho storm, corn yields vary greatly, ranging from 100 to 200 bushels per acre. Minnihan talks about some farmers playing the waiting game after their insurance told them some of the corn acres were unharvestable.

“Which is very rare, I’ve never seen it. A lot of guys that have been doing this longer than I have, have never disc 300, 400, or 500 acres of corn. There still is some field waiting on decisions to be made on the insurance side.”

Minnihan describes his reaction to the higher-end corn yields, even with the challenging aspects of drought and derecho.

“I was probably surprised on either side of it. There’s some stuff that we thought was maybe going to do a little bit better than (the) drought might have hit it a little bit more. It kind of stood through the storm, or didn’t get as much wind or hail, but maybe the drought took it a little more. And then vice versa, there were some fields that absolutely looked not very good (and) they surprised us 20-30 bushel better than we anticipated.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop and Progress Report, Iowa farmers had an average of 3.8 days of suitable fieldwork last week. Statewide, about three-quarters of corn has been harvested, and only six-percent of soybeans are left to be harvested, which both are three weeks ahead of last year.