Northwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Wet weather continues this spring as many farms still need to finish planning. We have more chances of rain this week, but after that weather is expected to be warm and mostly dry for the next two weeks. This should help dry fields out and speed up crop growth. The north half of this region has a fair amount of corn yet to plant and most of their soybeans. The southern half of NW Iowa is basically finished with both crops.

Corn planted into good conditions in late April to early May emerged with good to excellent stands. The only exceptions are wet areas of farms where saturated soil reduced stand. Drainage is once again a very important element this spring (especially north), farms with good natural drainage or sufficiently tiled have the advantage. Some wet spots that were planted to corn earlier will need to be re-planted because the seed didn’t survive the saturated conditions (lack of oxygen). Corn that still needs to be planted will likely have reduced yield potential, but the warm outlook will help it emerge and grow quickly when it finally gets planted.

The early to mid-May planted soybeans are emerging this week. They should also have excellent stands,except where the soil was saturated for too long. It looks like dryer weather upcoming should allow most of the remaining soybean to be planted by June 1st which is not far behind typical schedule. The warm weather will help the late planted beans grow quickly.