Statewide Iowa — The USDA is scheduled to release an updated estimate of the 2021 corn crop.
Iowa State University economist Chad Hart says the mid-October prediction was a 15 billion bushel corn harvest, the largest ever.
Iowa is the nation’s top corn producing state. Justin Glisan, the state climatologist, says it’s been a rollercoaster year for weather, as Iowa has been in a structural drought since the spring of 2020.
Hart says farmers had the option of choosing seed varieties that can withstand dry weather.
Hart and Glisan made their comments during a weekend appearance on Iowa PBS. The latest USDA crop and weather report for Iowa shows the state’s corn harvest was 84 percent complete by Sunday. Ninety-five percent of Iowa’s soybean crop was harvested by the end of the weekend. Most of the soybeans fields still to be harvested are in southwest and south central Iowa.
