Northwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Harvest is well underway in this area. A warm September accelerated crop maturity and dry down. Most of the progress so far is on early maturity soybeans and a little corn. According to the National Weather Service, we have multiple chances of rain later this week, but beyond that it looks like more above normal temperatures and near normal rain chances. Rain this fall would help rebuild soil moisture for next year.

The soybean yield reports that I’ve heard so far have been generally better than expected. Most are doing between 50 to 70 bushels per acre. Yields vary from a wide range of rainfall amounts this summer and soil quality. It will be interesting to see if the mid to late season beans are as good as or better than the early beans. The late maturity beans are not ready to harvest yet. After a dry summer, the widespread rainfall in mid to late August was just in time to boost soybean yields.

Corn has reached full maturity but most needs time to dry down before harvest. Weather over the next month will determine the dry down rate. Warm temps, sunlight, low humidity, and wind will all help speed up corn dry down. I think most corn will be harvested a little earlier than usual if the forecast holds true. I don’t have many yield reports yet, but I believe the corn crop is also a little better than expected.