Southeast Iowa Crop Conditions

This will be the last report of the season. Harvest is mostly complete in NW Iowa except for a random piece here and there. The weather made this fall a difficult one. We thought harvest would begin early this year but Mother Nature had other ideas with continuous rain and saturated fields. Very little fall field work or Nitrogen applications were completed before the ground froze and the snow started to fall. Now it looks like winter is here to stay with a blanket of snow and several inches of hard frost underneath.

Soybean yields Southeast of Storm Lake very extremely variable. Drainage was the biggest factor determining our yields this year. Well tiled and naturally draining fields were considerably better producers this year compared to poorly drained farms where saturated soils trimmed field average below average. The use of fungicides to control disease pressure was very beneficial this year.

Corn yields were a better story as some farms saw record yields while others weren’t quite records but were still much above the 5 year average. Once again, drainage was the key factor in determining overall yields, followed by fertility management.

Reports will begin again in the spring. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season.