Northwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Weather has been nice most of August but also fairly dry. Temps were on the cool side which is good and bad. It helped reduce stress in dry areas and extends the grain fill period, however 6slowing down development isn’t all positive especially this year. Crops are behind in maturity, so an early (or even normal) frost date would be harmful to the late planted crops. The earlier planted crops should reach maturity by late September which is typically when we have our first
frost. There are millions of acres nationally behind schedule and vulnerable to an early frost, this will be watched closely by the grain trade over the next month.

Corn that was planted by mid-May is just starting to dent. This is well behind last year crop, but not too far behind average. Corn is still adding dry weight (yield) at this stage, so weather will still impact yield good or bad. The somewhat cool weather is good during this stage for yield but will slow things down. We could have wet corn this fall if we don’t have good drying weather in late September and October. Most corn is still 3 to 4 weeks from full maturity (black layer). The corn planted in June especially needs some warmer weather.

Soybeans could benefit from a little more rain in September, but they don’t appear to best stressed at this time. The number of pods are generally down from the last two years, but we could get large beans to help compensate for that. It’s hard to guess how soybeans will yield until harvest. They occasionally surprise us good or bad.