Northwest Iowa — The latest crop report released Tuesday by the USDA shows the recent wet weather hasn’t allowed many farmers in Iowa to get into their fields. Iowa State University Agronomist Joel DeJong, who monitors a nine-county region in northwest Iowa, says he’s not seeing a lot of combines moving around.
The USDA reports just eight-percent of Iowa’s corn and 26-percent of soybeans have been harvested. The corn harvest is more than two weeks behind the five-year average, while beans are nearly a week behind. Last year, Iowa produced a record soybean harvest of 572 million bushels, with a yield of 60.5 bushels per acre. DeJong is hearing a few early reports of this year’s bean harvest.
The crop report indicates across Iowa, on average, there were fewer than three days suitable for fieldwork last week. While there’s been plenty of rain, there haven’t been high winds. DeJong says he’s NOT seeing a lot of problems with corn stalks tipping over, but it appears many fields could be vulnerable.
Click here for the full crop report.
Audio Version of Crop Report
