Counties of: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Plymouth, Sioux
There have been two short windows of corn planting in much of NW Iowa. The first was back around April 14
through the 16th, and the second was last weekend May 6 through the 9th. Both periods ended abruptly by heavy
rain.
Most corn has been planted, but much of it was planted into overly wet soils and packed in by heavy rains. The
top inch of soil has a tendency to form a hard crust when this happens, which can cause problems with corn
emergence. Other areas remained completely saturated for an extended period, which could kill the plant. Some
fields have a good or acceptable stand already up, some corn is just about to come up, some was just planted
recently, and the rest has not been planted. We will need to watch the corn closely over the next two weeks
because there will be some problems.
We don’t have a lot of soybeans planted in this area yet. As soon as conditions are fit many farmers will start on
soybeans. Most consider the first week of May to be the optimum time to start planting soybeans, so I we are not
far behind that yet.
Today’s USDA WASDE report reduced old crop corn stocks by 60 million bushels, and ending stocks were 121
million bushels less than expected. Ending stocks for beans were 100 million less than expected. The USDA
numbers along with lowered South American crop estimates resulted in a 10 to 12 cent gain in corn and 50 cent
rally in beans. The Brazilian currency strength compared to the U.S. dollar continues to help our soybean market,
and the strong soybean market helps to hold up corn prices also.
Please click on the links on the right to view the past pdf’s of our Northwest Crop Conditions reports.
1705 N Lake Ave
Storm Lake, IA 50588
Real Estate Licensed in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Stay informed and connected—subscribe to our mailing list today to receive the latest issues of Today’s Land Owner, Crop Updates, or get notified of auctions and real estate for sale, sent directly in your inbox!