Northwest Iowa — Farmers in northwest Iowa are looking to get into the fields and get their crops planted.
Leah Ten Napel, a Field Agronomist through ISU Extension and Outreach, says farmers will most likely be able to plant in April. She says the state of Iowa will warm up quickly, however, northwest Iowa seems to be a bit slower warming up than the rest of the state. She tells us about what soil temperature is good for planting.
Ten Napel tells us that even with all the snow we got this winter, precipitation is still low. Ten Napel explains that when the snow melted it didn’t likely get all soaked up into the ground.
She says most of the moisture probably made its way to a stream or river, but she is hopeful that northwest Iowa won’t continue to be in an extreme drought. She explains that La Niña seems to be fading away and El Niño may be on its way either this summer or this coming winter, which means with El Niño the temperatures will be warmer.
Ten Napel says she will be taking soil samples next week in 11 or 12 sites around northwest Iowa and she is excited to see how those soil samples compare to last year, which was a very dry year.
She says she has no doubts that these soil samples will be dry.
Ten Napel serves nine counties in northwest Iowa. Her area of expertise is soil fertility, pest management, and field crop production.
