Northwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Corn planting started on well-drained farms over the last 3 to 4 days in April. Some areas were too wet to plant during that window. So far in May we’ve had 1/2 to 2 inches of rain which limited planting activity.Temperatures have been seasonable over the last two weeks. Soil temps are in the low 60’s which is fairly normal for early May.

The corn that was planted in late April should emerge later this this week. I don’t expect emergence problems, but we will have to watch for surface crusting where we had heavy rain. We could also see problems later in the season with compaction and roots if the corn was planted into excessively wet soils.A good amount of corn was planted on May 7th and some today (May 8th), but if the wet forecast holds true this week the last of the corn probably won’t get planted until next week. Overall corn planting is somewhat behind schedule this year, but it still looks like our NW region should be finished planning corn by mid-May. We have no major concerns with yield reductions from late planting at this time.

Very few soybeans have been planted yet. Most farmers won’t start planting beans until the corn is finished. Progress can happen very quickly if given the opportunity. Yield potential of soybeans will start to decrease when the planting date is delayed into the 2nd half of May and early June. When soybean planting is delayed, they are typically shorter plants and have lower podding heights resulting in fewer pods and less yield on average.