Counties of: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Plymouth, Sioux
Weather during the first half of June was dramatically different than the second half of May. Late May was cold and wet, but early June crops endured hot temperatures with little rain. Temps recently have returned to normal, but rainfall continues to be spotty. Generally areas northwest of Storm Lake had better rain than South or East, but it varied widely across the area.
Corn size ranges between 8 and 20 inches tall. Corn stand quality and population are very good on most farms. The biggest issue now is with stressed corn roots because of hard dry soil especially in the later planted corn or areas that missed the early June rain. The earlier planted corn tends to have better roots this year, and that corn is growing rapidly.
Corn has two root systems the seed root (seminal) and the main roots (nodal). The main or nodal root don’t start growing until corn is a few inches tall. The transition between seminal & nodal roots (seed root and the main root) is where trouble started to show up this season on some farms. Topsoil gets hard for various reasons causing the main or nodal roots to struggle getting started and reach moisture / nutrients. Rain will usually help this problem go away on its own.
Soybeans are currently between just emerged and about 8 inches tall. Some soybeans had issues with emergence when cold wet soils turned hard they struggled to break through the crust. Later planted soybeans didn’t have that problem, but some of those were in dry dirt which delayed emergence. Regardless of those issues, most fields now have an acceptable stand. The small gaps and holes will fill in overtime and yield potential remains very good.
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
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