Northwest Iowa — After a slow start due to a very wet spring, field and crop conditions are improving in Iowa.
Brad Medlock, the Agricultural Statistician for the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service for the Upper Midwest Field Office says that more days have been available for fieldwork than earlier in the spring when farmers were lucky to get in one day per week.
But he says the alfalfa and pasture stats are not as good as they could be.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says that the much-needed warmer temperatures have helped the crops progress. He says that some parts of the state had below-average rainfall recently, but sub-soil moisture is still adequate for the crops to grow.
Here in the northwest reporting district, 95 percent of soybeans have emerged, and 91 percent of alfalfa fields have been cut for the first time.
