Southeast Iowa Crop Conditions

A good stretch of dry weather has many farmers southeast of Storm Lake done with soybeans and well into corn harvest if not getting close to finished. Soils are still pretty wet and making fall tillage questionable at this point but some are still giving it a try.

Corn yields have mostly been above average as we expected and grain moisture being mostly below 20% will keep drying costs below normal this year.Soybeans are mostly done. There may be a few patches that were too wet to harvestthat will be finished after the ground freezes if there is anything worth trying toharvest. Yields have been somewhat disappointing compared to expectations. Fields looked like they were going to set new records but turned out to be just above average. Drainage and planting date are likely the two main components to yield this year.

Grain markets have been fairly quiet until yesterday (November 1st) when President Trump put out a tweet about trade talks with Chinese President Xi. The marketreacted as if the end of the trade war is in sight. Something will need to materialize to continue the rally.