Southwest Iowa Crop Conditions

Recent return to “summer weather” has helped corn and beans gain speed toward maturity and dry-down. Storms last week put down some hail across parts of this region, but nothing too serious that we’ve heard of. The consensus on yields in this
area is that some fields will see some of their best yields, but most will probably be very good but not achieve a new record. We expect the overall bean yield in the west-central crop district will be perhaps the best in Iowa, corn may be as well.

Crop prices continue to move pretty much sideways as everyone prepares for harvest. The trade has a “wait for the combines to roll” mentality before doing with prices. Early yield reports from areas south of here indicated yields lower to much
lower than last year, or recent averages. That’s what we expect to continue, for the most part, as harvest unfolds. Don’t forget that everything east of the Mississippi River in the main Corn Belt was only 35-45% planted on corn as of June 2. It would be miraculous for that corn to achieve average yields.

Land sale activity is picking up. Solid results on good land so far. We have not seen much activity on low-quality lately.