Southeast Iowa Crop Conditions

What a difference a week makes. A blizzard on Easter Sunday (April 12) to planting that Friday, the 17th. Farms Southeast of Storm Lake were probably the most fortunate of all during that period missing any significant snow amount on April
12th and also nothing on April 17th when parts of southern Iowa received 3-4inches of snow.

Most farmers southeast of Storm Lake are done planting corn and are making good progress on soybean planting. It has been a long time since we have been able to plant through the low spots of the field and not have to come back later after it
1/3dried. The size and speed of the modern equipment makes planting go much faster than it did even 10 years ago.

Grain markets are still struggling with demand destruction from Covid 19 and the collapse of the oil market. The longer the general economy stays shut down, the longer the grain markets will struggle to recover from lost demand.

Yesterday, April 28th, President Trump declared that animal processing facilities are essential businesses and need to stay open to process the market ready livestock.Farmers that grow row crops and also produce livestock are being double hit right now as neither side is profitable.

Hopefully this situation becomes a part of the past very soon and we can get back to whatever the new “normal” is going to be.