June 3, 2010
Iowa's corn and soy crops in good condition
Last week, farmers in southeast Iowa were finally able to get back into the fields after several weeks of limited field work; many have finished with soy planting and are spraying weeds and harvesting hay.
The state's 2010 corn crop is rated 74% good or excellent and soy are 71% good or excellent, according to the weekly crops and weather report released June 1 by the Iowa office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service in Des Moines.
"A week of warmer, drier weather throughout the state encouraged crop growth in most parts of the state," noted Harry Hillaker, state climatologist at the Iowa Department of Agriculture. "In southeast Iowa, farmers were finally able to get back in the fields after weeks of saturated soils. Also in south central and southeast Iowa, there has been some replanting of crops due to seedling rot, crusted soil and hail damage."
As of June 1, almost all of Iowa's corn and soy crops have been planted.
While crops are in mostly good condition throughout the state, many acres in south central and southeast Iowa are in poor condition due to too much rain.
"No rain fell at widely scattered northern and western Iowa locations such as Onawa, Denison, Sibley and Charles City this past week," he said. "Meanwhile, locally heavy rain fell in a few isolated areas such as 2.32 inches at Audubon and 2.70 inches at Shenandoah. Overall there was a state-wide average rainfall of 0.55 inches or a little more than one-half of the weekly normal of 1.03 inches."
