Northwest Iowa — Planting was ahead of schedule and that along with the drought could push the harvest time up this year. Iowa State University Extension agronomist Joel DeJong says there are several area soybean fields that have begun turning color and showing signs of drying.
(as he says)“Significantly earlier than we would normally expect, but we did plant our soybean crop earlier this year too, and I think that is part of the reason,” DeJong says.
He says the soybeans need more rain to fill out the beans in the pods.
(as said) DeJong says, “Many of those fields, they got spots in them. If not, fairly big areas. If not, and some fields, a high percentage of fields, really shutting down prematurely. Which is going to, in my opinion, gonna reduce soybean size dramatically.”
DeJong says not all the crops are hurting.
(as said) “You’re gonna see huge ranges as to areas that basically shut down three weeks ago before we had any decent beans in it because they are on sandier soils, and other areas that are hanging on and much later greening up, and so we are filling those pods a lot better.”
DeJong sees a lot of the same thing in cornfields.
(as said)“Parts of those fields you’ve seen the ears drop, and that’s pretty much an indicator it’s quit growing…,” DeJong says.
He says the early shutdown will also impact the final product in corn.
(as said) “the kernel size is likely to be a little smaller, but once we hit maturity than some dry down,” DeJong says, “We could be harvesting corn and soybeans about the same time the way it looks in some of these fields right now.”
DeJong says he never had a good rain at his home in Le Mars this growing season. The Iowa State University crops specialist says the only saving grace to this year’s yield is that we began the season with adequate amounts of subsoil moisture.
