Northwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Harvest progress has slowed down this week because of light rain and snow. T he soybeans that are left to harvest were planted late and are slow to mature (a hard freeze should help). Soybeans are about 80% harvested; corn is about 40% harvested. Most farmers are finding corn to be a little wetter than they would like to harvest, but this late in the season corn drying slows way down because of the shorter days and colder temperatures. A lot of corn will need to be harvested above 20% moisture f or the first time in 3 years.

Yields are running higher than expected on corn and soybeans especially west of Storm Lake. Yields above 50 bu per acre on beans and 190 bu per acre on corn are not uncommon. These yield numbers are actually closer to normal, but after a year of weather extremes that’s fairly impressive.

Grain markets continue to be sluggish because of good harvest reports, but final crop size is still a major unknown for the 2013-14 marketing year. Even with a big crop prices should see some improvement after harvest if domestic and export demand continue to grow.