Despite the wet weather, good progress was made harvest wise here in the State of Iowa last week. According to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Upper Midwest Regional office’s weekly Harvest Progress report, Statistician Rebecca Alter says 23% of the Iowa’s soybean crop was picked in the last week.
“Soybeans dropping leaves was 94% this week, 3 days ahead of last year and five days ahead of the average soybeans harvested reached 52% one day ahead of last year and seven days ahead of the average.”
So an incredible pace, no doubt a great testament to what Iowa producers can do if given the opportunity and this coming despite wet weather across at least part of the state as well. As for corn, harvest is ahead of schedule as well.
“Corn maturity reached 96% this week, 8 days ahead of last year and 11 days ahead of the five-year average. Corn harvested for grain reached 30% statewide, 5 days ahead of last year and six days ahead of the average. Moisture content of sealed corn being harvested for grain was at 19%. Corn condition declined slightly to 48%, good to excellent.”
In total, that means 12% of the state’s corn crop came out of the fields in the past week and getting into the bin. Now, the USDA does not offer a yield reporting service. Anecdotally, the numbers continue to be reported as better than expected. Of course, the debate nationally continues to be whether USDA’s projection of a 173-bushel National Average Yield needs to come down a little bit, and obviously where they’re at soybeans at 50.2 bushels per acre is probably still a touch high as far as an average national yield is concerned.
