Counties of: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, Plymouth, Sioux
Crops continue to progress in relatively good shape. Warm weather in June accelerated the crop growth, but we need widespread rainfall in July to maintain crop conditions. The drought in Northwest Iowa worsened over the last few weeks. There were pockets of heavy rain and isolated hail last week, but most of this region missed the rain or received very little. This area typically gets about 4 inches of rain in June, so far, most farms had less than 2 inches this month. The two-week outlook from the National Weather Service stays fairly warm. It shows above average probability for precipitation, so hopefully we’ll start catching some rain.
Most corn is 2 ½ to 3 feet tall which is small compared to last year, but not far from average for this time of year. Moisture stress began showing up in the corn last week with some minor leaf rolling during the heat of the day (a natural defense to conserve water). I do not believe this corn has suffered yield damaging stress yet. Areas with light soils are in worse condition. Rainfall in the next week or two before pollination would improve yields greatly.
Soybeans are 6 to 10 inches tall and generally in good condition. They would also benefit from rainfall and moderate temperatures. This time of year, soybeans are building capacity to make pods & beans in August. June stress will result in shorter plant heights, but not necessarily fewer pods at harvest.
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.
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