Harvest has begun

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Area farmers are getting a good start on the harvest and the crop is looking pretty good, according to an area expert.

Terry Basol is an agronomy field specialist with the Iowa State University Extension Service. He is is based out of the Northeast Iowa Research Farm near Nashua.

“I think it’s going pretty good to begin with,” Basol said Tuesday afternoon. “They kind of started up Friday afternoon and got going for a lot of guys. This weekend was favorable weather. Some acres got cleaned out.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Crop Progress and Condition Report for the week ending Sunday, Oct. 1, said that statewide 6 percent of the corn and 16 percent of the soybeans had been harvested.

Northcentral Iowa, the region that includes Floyd County, was listed as 3 percent harvested for corn and 15 percent for beans, with 72 percent of the corn crop mature and 92 percent of the soybeans dropping leaves.

Basol said there hasn’t been much corn harvested yet in the area, except for farmers with livestock who are harvesting high-moisture corn for feed, or those who planted corn with very, very early maturity.

He said he hadn’t talked with anyone yet as far as actual numbers that were coming out for yields, but based on the crop condition, “I think it’s looking pretty good.”

“Yields for the most part should be average,” Basol said. “I don’t think we’re looking at bumper crops, but they held their own for the most part through northeast Iowa.

“We were kind of in the garden spot all the way through the growing season,” he said. “We did get dry here in August — that put some stress a little bit on some of the crops — but I think we’re probably as good or better than the rest of the state.

“We had pretty decent growing conditions all the way right up to August — fairly timely rains, things like that,” Basol said. “The critical times for the crop we had perfect timing for rain events.”

Basol said there were some pockets in lighter soils that showed some crop stress as moisture levels got low, but medium to heavy soils held the moisture through the growing season.

Some parts of the state experienced extreme drought stress, he said. “We’re better as far as yields and crop condition.”

Basol said he was in the Mankato, Minnesota, area over the weekend and he saw combines in the fields all the way Friday evening going up and all the way coming back Saturday evening.

“I know there was a lot of harvest activity on Sunday until we ended up getting some rain showers that came through Monday morning that kind of slowed them down a little,” he said.

At this point in the season the major weather concerns are extended rain that would keep farmers out of the field or strong wind that could knock over some corn, he said, adding that the crops should be close to the point where an early frost would not do major damage.

One thing the agronomist cautioned everyone to keep in mind is safety.

“This is a busy time of the year. Guys are in a hurry trying to get all the acres done as fast as possible because Mother Nature is always a concern,” he said. “Think twice before you’re gonna do something. Make sure everybody stays safe.”