Southwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Southwest of Storm Lake

Counties of: Woodbury, Ida, Sac, Monona, Crawford, Harrison, Shelby

May 20, 2025

Past Weeks Rainfall: Dry until Sunday night.

Soil Moisture: Topsoil moisture is rate 53% adequate and 47% short or very short, trending drier. Subsoil is 39% adequate and 60% short of very short, trending drier. Drought Monitor shows normal to D0 (abnormally dry) for this area. Very dry in May until now.

Temperature: Varying temps with highs from the 60’s to 80’s, lows from 40’s to 60’s. Forecast includes several days with rain chances. Highs normal to below for next week. Soil temp is mid 60’s.

Crop Progress: Most planting is done. State of Iowa is 91% done with corn and 84% done with beans.

Corn

Crop Stage: West-central Iowa is 90% planted as of May 18th, with 62% emerged.

Yield Potential: Normal

Soybean

Crop Stage: West-central Iowa is 82% planted as of May 18th, 38% emerged.

Yield Potential: Normal

Corn Market

Current Prices: $4.32/bu

Fall Prices: $4.02/bu

Past Weeks Trend: Steady in the past week

Soybean Market

Current Prices: $10.12/bu

Fall Prices: $9.67/bu

Past Weeks Trend: Steady in the past week

Comments:

Dennis Reyman AFM, ARA

Planting is nearly done in this area. Only a few odds and ends left to plant. 1^st cutting alfalfa has begun which is earlier than normal. Most corn has emerged to several inches height. Beans are emerging. Early planted beans have begun leafing out. Few, if any areas of too-wet soil conditions. Warm and dusty was more of the problem but a general rain Sunday night and yesterday gave crops around the area a good drink.

Bean prices staged a mini-rally the 2^nd week of May and remain above $10 per bushel. Beans have traded in an extremely tight price range since harvest, ranging little more than $1.00 from low to high so far. It would not be surprising to see traders decide to take corn and beans on a bit of a price run, but don’t get overly optimistic on the upside.

The land market is basically steady on low volume. April and May are often very quiet months for land transaction activity.

Crop Update Achives

Please click on the links on the right to view the past pdf’s of our Southwest Crop Conditions reports.