Heavy rains causing plenty of concerns for area farmers

By Bob Fenske, Nashua Reporter

The challenges just don’t want to go away for area farmers in 2018.

They battled snow and rain in April and May to get their crops in the field. They dealt with an extremely wet June, before catching a break in July, but the recent deluge of rain that dropped more than 15 inches of precipitation on the area in an 11-day time period has growers fretting about the upcoming harvest season.

“For the most part, it just provided more moisture than we needed, way more moisture,” said Terry Basol, an ISU Extension agronomist based in Nashua. “Farmers, by nature, worry a lot. Mother Nature has thrown the kitchen sink, it seems, this year.”

Still, Basol said he’s hopeful that growers can salvage a decent crop this fall.

“The last week or so has been great,” Basol said. “We obviously needed the rain to stop. It did, but we also had decent temperatures and for the most part a nice breeze and that all helps dry everything out.”

And that July — one the agronomist termed “almost perfect” — certainly helped.

“The amount of heat units we had, the crop development temperatures we had, that was excellent and it helped us compensate a little for the late planting the guys had,” he said. “And we didn’t stress it that much, heat-wise, this year.”

Still, he understands the concerns farmers have, especially when it comes to harvest issues with beans and the development of ear molds and stalk rot in corn.

And this week’s additional rain certainly didn’t help.

Basol said he’s highly recommending farmers walk all of their cornfields to see what they’ll be dealing with when the time to harvest arrives.

“It’s better to know what you’re facing, and it also really helps you set a pecking order for your fields.”

He said dry weather would alleviate some of the worries about the soybean harvest, although he did say there have been fields affected by sudden death syndrome (SDS).

Farmers have also reported that the above normal rainfall has caused difficulties in bringing in the latest hay crop.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Charles City area had received more than 11 inches of rain in September, including another 3 inches Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The normal for this time of month is only a little over 2 inches, and the average for the entire month is only 3.2 inches.

The Charles City area had also received more than twice the normal amount of rain in August, as well.

“It’s one thing after another this year,” Basol said. “I think we can still have decent yields but we need a little help from the weather.”

He pointed out that if ever Northeast Iowa needed a year for a later-than-normal frost, this is the year.

“A lot of guys were two, three weeks late getting into the fields because of the winter we had in April,” he said. “We need some time for everything to dry out.”

Basol laughed before continuing.

“So allergy sufferers, we need you to take one for the team,” he said. “We are going to need that extra time this year.”

According to the weekly Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 94 percent of the corn crop has reached the dent stage or beyond, a week ahead of the 5-year average.

Fifty-three percent of the corn crop was mature, just over a week ahead of average. Corn condition rated 73 percent good to excellent.

Eighty-three percent of the soybean crop was coloring with 50 percent dropping leaves, 8 days ahead of average. Soybean condition rated 72 percent good to excellent.

In the north-central district that includes Floyd County, 94 percent of the corn was dented but only 36 percent of the corn was listed as mature.