After difficult year, area farmers complete harvest with ease

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

After a year that’s been nothing short of tumultuous for area farmers, the fall harvest season was remarkably smooth.

‘You couldn’t have asked for better harvest conditions,” said Terry Basol, field agronomist and crop specialist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, who works out of Nashua. “We had a little stint with some snow in some areas, but it didn’t last very long.”

The weather conditions helped farmers throughout the state. Basol said that most of the work in the north central and northeast part of the state is essentially done, and that he’s hearing reports of good yields from area farmers.

At the beginning of this week statewide, only 6% of Iowa’s corn crop remained to be harvested, which was almost four weeks ahead of last year and over two weeks ahead of the five-year average, according to the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

“We were fortunate to have a stretch of unseasonably warm and dry conditions last week, which allowed many farmers to wrap up the 2020 harvest earlier than normal,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said Monday. “We anticipate a shift to more seasonal conditions this week, with the weather turning cooler and wetter for the next several days.”

Only 2% of Iowa’s soybean crop remained to be harvested at the start of this week, almost three weeks ahead of last year and 10 days ahead of average.

“I think it was a great fall, and a lot better harvest than it could have been,” Basol said. “It was a good ending for a difficult year.”

Topsoil moisture condition in the state rated 16 percent very short, 36 percent short, 48 percent adequate and 0 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated 23 percent very short, 36 percent short, 41 percent adequate and 0 percent surplus, according to the report. Statewide, the average moisture content of field corn being harvested for grain was 15 percent.

“Our ground is still warm, it’s not frozen, so any moisture we’ve gotten recently is going to soak in,” Basol said. “It’s going to be a big help for next spring’s soil moisture profile.”

The state experienced drought conditions through July, and Basol said that the southern edge of the area he covers was impacted by the derecho last summer, which made things challenging for everyone.

“I’ve never seen that kind of severity in a storm, I’ve never seen an entire cornfield entirely flattened like that,” he said. “From what I can tell, there has been pretty good assistance for those who were hit the hardest, and as always, a tremendous amount of support.”

Basol said that farmers are resilient, and the traditional Iowa spirit of helping neighbors held true.

You can’t beat the ‘Iowa nice’ outlook,” Basol said. “Everybody helps out everybody when they need something.”