Northwest Iowa — According to new information just released by the National Agricultural Statistics Service branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, 2016 was a record year for corn production in much of northwest Iowa.
We had a chance to talk to Iowa State University Extension agronomist Joel De Jong about the numbers. He says that of the four northwest Iowa counties, only Osceola did not set a record.
Sioux County had the highest yield in the four-county area with 212.2 bushels per acre. O’Brien was next with 210.7. Lyon was next with 206.9 and Osceola County corn fields averaged 203.7 bushels per acre.
He says the news was good statewide as well.
As far as soybeans, De Jong says that northwest Iowa had the top five yielding counties.
O’Brien County had an average soybean yield in 2016 of 64.4 bushels per acre, and Osceola County had an average of 56.6.
De Jong says the northwest reporting district seems to often lead the state in soybean yields, and in the last ten years, many of the leading corn-producing counties are in our area as well. He tells us why he thinks that is.
De Jong says the National Agricultural Statistics Service doesn’t contact all farmers to get their yields, but he says they have the largest sample size and therefore the most accurate estimates of average yield of any other yield survey he’s come across.
