Northwest Iowa — Not everything is negative in this time of the pandemic. Some things are actually better than normal. One of the things that would fit into that category, or at least the category of being somewhat normal — is the planting and crop progress in area fields.
Iowa State University agronomist Joel De Jong tells us that compared to last year, farmers are much further along in the process.
(as said:) “Well compared to last year of course this is wonderful because we had producers north on Highway 9 that didn’t even turn a wheel until after the fifth of June or 7th of June last year. So most the corn crop was planted before the end of April. I know a lot of people that were done planting soybeans before the end of April and a very high percentage of soybeans in the ground and in the majority of both are emerged. We’re just really grateful right now that we’ve got some sunshine and finally, the temperature’s warming up because it’s been slow growth, but at least in most cases the stand’s there and it’s just ready to take off.”
He gives us some more details on crop progress.
(as said:) “On corn what we do is we count collars of leaves, you know, once the leaves pretty much complete it grows a little collar around the main stem. And so we’ve got a lot of V2 or two-collar to four-collar corn out there four-collar corn is about the most mature. The growing point hits a surface at about the five-collar or the V5 stage. So we’re at that thing and that’s typically when we really start to see rapid growth. So right now we’ve established root systems. We’re getting ready to start kicking off and if we keep these temperatures warm…almost everybody has good moisture in the soil. We’re going to start to see that really take off. Soybeans… they’re a little slower taken off. But we do see some trifoliate leaves out there in some plants. So it’s you know again when they’re small they’re trying to get root systems established. Once they do they start growing more and more.”
Next, we asked De Jong to peer into his crystal ball and tell us how he thinks corn and bean prices will be affected this fall by COVID-19. De Jong reminds us, he is an agronomist, not a marketing specialist, but he says there are supply and demand issues.
(as said:) “The COVID thing has really shut down the oil price and everything else. And of course, that’s an also big part of our corn market out here. It looks like supply is going to be abundant. We’re probably not feeding quite as much to livestock. We’re not using as much corn for ethanol. You know, when you’ve got that demand being reduced, of course, that can’t be real positive on prices.”
He tells us that what happens this growing season remains to be seen and there are still many variables that could change things by then as well.
