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Area growers counting on dry weather this week to complete harvest

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The key to area farmers completing a successful harvest in northeast Iowa this year is simple — good weather.

“We simply need the weather to continue to be favorable, so growers are able to harvest their crops,” said Terry Basol, field agronomist and crop specialist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, who works out of Nashua.

“We’re definitely pushing the system. The longer it stands in the field, the more concerned we get,” he said.

According to the USDA crop report released on Monday, 77 percent of the corn crop has been harvested in Iowa, but in northeast Iowa, that number is just 58 percent.

As a whole, Iowa’s harvest is 10 days behind last year and 12 days behind the five-year average.

“Not all of it is out of the fields yet. We’ve had quite a bit of rain in our neck of the woods,” said Basol. “As I was driving around last week checking out the crops, I was thinking that if we were at 60 percent, that would be good.”

Northwest and north central Iowa have harvested over 85 percent of their expected corn crop. Moisture content of field corn being harvested for grain was at 20 percent.

“Four consecutive days of favorable weather allowed many farmers to finish up soybeans last week,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said in a release. “There is still some corn in the fields, especially in northeast portions of the state which has received above-average snowfall. If we can get another stretch of dry days, many farmers will be able to wrap up harvest.”

Ninety-five percent of the soybean crop has been harvested statewide, about one week behind average. Southeast and south central Iowa still have more than 10 percent of their soybean crop remaining to be harvested.

Basol said it isn’t just the recent weather that’s slowed the corn harvest down in northeast Iowa, it’s the weather the area had last spring that caused some growers to plant two or three weeks later than usual.

“They ended up planting hybrids in the spring that need longer growing seasons,” Basol said. “Then we had wet weather, snow and cold weather with a freeze. Farmers aren’t able to get into a seamless motion of harvest. They are kind of going in spurts.”

Then, Basol said, throw in the current statewide propane shortage.

“Propane shortages continued to be a challenge for farmers as they try to dry down their corn crop due to high moisture content,” the USDA report said.

Last month, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an emergency proclamation to help alleviate propane delivery problems that was enacted at the first of this month and will run to the end of November. The executive order suspended provisions of Iowa law restricting the hours of service for crews and commercial drivers delivering propane.

She later signed an executive order allowing vehicles transporting propane to be oversize and overweight.

Basol said he wasn’t certain how much that has improved the situation.

“I would think it’s helped a little bit,” he said, but added that much depends on which grower you talk to, and which variety of corn the grower planted.

Basol said that as some farmers finish up, the demand for propane will go down for the remaining growers. A spell of fair, dry weather — with little or no rain and no high winds to knock down the standing corn — is essential.

The weather forecast for the Charles City area calls for a good chance of rain on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Less than an inch of rain is expected. Beyond that, no rain is predicted for this week.

“That’s definitely positive news,” Basol said. “I hope that holds true.”

On average, Basol said, northeast Iowa was 1-2 weeks behind the normal in planting last spring.

“We didn’t have a real hot summer to push the development, we had a relatively cool season,” he said. “The good news is that the corn didn’t get a lot of stress, and that helps the yield. We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the yield, considering all the challenges.”

As the farmers hurry to finish up this month, Basol stressed that they keep themselves safe.

“Safety first. Stay alert,” he said. “These sessions can get long, people can get sleep-deprived. I always want to tell them to stay safe out there and avoid accidents.”

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