Southwest Iowa Crop Conditions

The clock is ticking on achieving maximal planting dates for corn and soybeans. Yield potential for corn generally begins declining slightly after May 10th, and faster after May 15th. Of course, emergence and growing season has a whole lot to do with the outcome, but early planting into good soil conditions is a key ingredient to top yields. Soil temps as of late last week remained around 50, which is barely warm enough for corn and not warm enough for beans to germinate. Warm temps this week will finally solve that problem. We won’t know if April planting into cold soils this year will out-produce May planting into warmer soils until the combines roll this fall. If considerable progress is made this week, it will position our territory well for good yields.

Grain prices trended sideways but have dropped in the past two days. Volatile markets don’t continue to go straight up, as this one had for about six weeks. Certainly the prices noted above are very good, but have tapered off the highs for now at least.

Land sale activity normally slows up considerably during April and May. With record high prices being achieved, volume remains strong. The land auction season tends to begin in June and this year is no different. We anticipate 2022 will be a very high-volume year.