Southwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Crops are entering the home stretch. Corn needs to finish grain fill in September, then will hit physiological maturity by late month or early October. That’s later than normal, since the crop would be around 30% moisture at that point and still needs to dry down. 1/2 to 1 point per day of dry-down can be accomplished in favorable weather, but with a later crop, most expect slower in-field dry-down.Some fields will have very good yields, but we expect most will be off by some amount from the past two years in this area. Beans are finishing growing the beans that are finishing growing the beans that
are in the pods. Size of the bean seeds are an important factor in yield.

It feels like prices keep getting the hammer. Corn prices have receded to their average of the past five years, around $3.35 per bushel. Beans have followed downward but are far below their average levels, now around $7.75 per bushel. This allows zero price premium for weather problems during the growing season. We will not know who is right until harvest is well underway. Corn harvest in southern states has been good on the early corn, but their planting season stretched out too and later crops are not expected to be as good.

Land selling season is getting busier, as is normal for this time of year. So far, sale results are steady to
slightly higher on good land.