Southwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Southwest of Storm Lake

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

April 21, 2025

Past Weeks Rainfall: Several small but general rains of a tenth to several tenths

Soil Moisture: Topsoil moisture is rated 61% adequate and 39% short or very short. Subsoil is 40% adequate and 60% short or very short. Drought Monitor shows D0 (abnormally dry) for this area.

Temperature: Normal temps with highs in 50’s to 70’s, lows in the 30’s to 50’s. Weekend forecast is warm, then back to 50’s and 60’s next week. Soil temp is 50-55 degrees.

Crop Progress: Considerable progress for some farmers, limited for others.

Corn

Crop Stage: West-central Iowa is 19% planted as of April 20th.

Yield Potential: Normal

Soybean

Crop Stage: West-central Iowa is 6% plantd as of April 20th.

Yield Potential: Normal

Corn Market

Current Prices: $4.65/bu

Fall Prices: $4.24/bu

Past Weeks Trend: Fairly steady

Soybean Market

Current Prices: $9.79/bu

Fall Prices: $9.56/bu

Past Weeks Trend: Fairly steady

Comments:

Dennis Reyman AFM, ARA

Corn planting has been completed by some farmers and some are done with soybeans as well. Farmers who plan to begin planting at or near the crop insurance date of April 10th had good soil conditions to get started. Some of those farmers have made considerable planting progress. Other farmers gear their operations to begin planting in the latter part of April. They will make planting progress this week, however, rain chances Thursday may slow progress.

Storms rolled through Storm Lake very early Friday morning (18th) which uprooted evergreen trees and caused serious damage to some buildings. Our office is a brick structure with a low roofline and new shingles. We sustained no damage aside from two trees. Rainfall was limited to a half inch or less.

Crop Update Achives

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