Northeast Iowa Crop Conditions

Welcome to the first crop update of the 2019 growing season. After a very tough 2 half of winter, we are all very ready for spring. We have had a nice stretch of weather over the last 3 weeks and virtually all of our snow is melted and most ponds in the fields have started to go down as the frost has left the topsoil with the warmer soil temperatures. Soil conditions are still quite wet and field work will be limited in the near term.We are fortunate to not have the flooding issues experienced by our neighbors in Nebraska and the Western edge of Iowa, although a few rivers in the area are very high as the extensive snowmelt from North of us makes its way downstream.

Friday, March 30 was one of the bigger USDA report days of the year with Prospective Planting and Grain stock reports as of March 1 issued. For corn, both reports were negative. Corn stocks, while below last year at this time, were above expectations. Intended acres were 1.5 million acres above expectations at 92.8 million acres, a jump of 3.7 million acres from last year. March had been a good month pricewise for corn, but negative reaction from Friday’s report took all gains away. Soybean stocks were as expected, but that is a very negative number at over 600 million bushel higher than last year’s level thanks to disruption from China tariffs. Acres will be lower this year, but there will still be plenty of soybeans.

Now weather takes over. Flooding and wet conditions have been in the news in March, and if this continues through April, we will likely see a reduction in planted corn acres and increase in soybeans. Stay tuned.