Despite snowy spring, crops are planted and soil conditions are good

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Farmers were getting a little nervous in April, but they recovered quickly in May.

According to Terry Basol, field agronomist and crop specialist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach out of Nashua, most of the corn and bean planting in northeast and north central Iowa is finished, despite the cold early spring temperatures and the extraordinary amount of early spring snow dumped onto the fields.

‘We’re in good shape. Pretty much everything has gotten planted,” Basol said. “Even in the north end of my territory, the weather has allowed them to get most everything in.”

Basol said that as of last Sunday, 91 percent of the corn was planted in northeast Iowa, and 69 percent of that has emerged. He said he believes that with the hot dry weather last week, most of the corn and most of the soybeans are in the ground.

“There’s some corn in the southern area of the territory that was planted two weeks before this, so there’s a little bit of variability in growth staging in the area,” he said.

In mid-to-late April, farmers were getting concerned, as some places still had snow on the ground and the soil temperature was well below where it needed to be. Basol said that once farmers got started, however, it didn’t take long for them to get the planting done.

“The weather turned around quickly, and most of these guys have really good equipment set up. Give them a good week and they can easily get the corn it. Give them two weeks and they get everything in.”

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig commented on the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition report released last week by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service.

 “The warm, dry weather allowed many farmers to make significant progress and now 96 percent of corn and 81 percent of soybeans have been planted, which is on pace or slightly ahead of the five-year average,” Naig said. “The high temperatures have created some stress for livestock and farmers have been working hard to provide plenty of water and make sure their animals are as comfortable as possible.”

Statewide, topsoil moisture levels rated 3 percent very short, 12 percent short, 77 percent adequate and eight percent surplus. Subsoil moisture levels rated 5 percent very short, 12 percent short, 74 percent adequate and 9 percent surplus. South central Iowa continues to struggle with subsoil moisture supply availability with three-quarters rated short to very short.

According to the report published last Tuesday, at that time, Iowa growers have planted 96 percent of the expected corn crop, with 77 percent of the crop emerged. Farmers in the northern one-third of the state were able to plant over 20 percent of their corn during the previous week.

Forty-four percent of soybeans had emerged, three days ahead of last year. Nearly all the expected oat crop has been planted, one week behind average. Ninety-five percent of the crop has emerged, two days behind last year. Four percent of the oat crop has headed, four days behind both last year and the average.

Basol said that since some planting didn’t get done until after the 15th of May, there is a potential threat of yield loss this year, depending upon weather patterns throughout the summer and into the fall.

“We’ll be two or three weeks behind in some places, but I’m not severely concerned for the guys as far as a big yield hit,” Basol said. “The rest of the parameters need to fall into place, but we still have great potential for yield in northeast Iowa.”

Topsoil moisture is now 87 percent adequate, Basol said, and subsoil numbers are similar — with only 2 percent of soil short on moisture.

‘We’re in really good shape to get that crop started and get through the first half of the growing season,” he said. “We’re sitting really good.”

Basol said the worst thing that could happen in the coming weeks would be too much heat and too little rain.

“If our rain vent would shut off and we were to continue to get 90-plus degree weather without rain, that would stress the crops,” he said.

He’s hopeful the temperatures will cool down instead.

“The best-case scenario would be some nice, timely rain and a little bit cooler temps into August, so it’s not stressing the crops.”