Northeast Iowa Crop Conditions

July to date has been mostly cooler than normal, with only a couple of hot days. This has been a plus for a crop that was a little short on moisture in many areas. We received a gentle rain last week of .5 to 1 inch. this storm was accompanied by strong winds in some areas that laid over corn. Most of this was not severe, and largely came back up after a couple of days, but there will be some loss in the most severely affected fields. Another rain around .5 to .75 inch fell in our eastern zones (Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Emmet, and Kossuth) on Sunday Morning and another fairly general rain was received the night of the eleventh. These were very timely rains as the corn is just entering its critical reproductive stage, and we are feeling better about crop prospects.

The grain markets have taken quite a bit of weather premium out as July weather has been good to much of the corn belt. IT will be interesting to see if any gets built back in with a forecast return to hot and dry conditions for the end of the month.