Busting myths as they relate to Iowa Agricultural production potentially this growing season. With the extremely dry weather, soybean yields will be key. Certainly things are changing in production row crop agriculture in Iowa. The old norm of course was plant the beans after the corn and then combine beans before corn. That’s not been the case this year in most operations as I’ve noticed harvest activity starting to ramp up in parts of the state and according to the weekly crop condition report from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Upper Midwest Regional Office, where the statistician is Brian Gallagher.
“Corn harvested for grain reached 5% statewide roughly one week ahead of both last year, and the average moisture content of field corn being harvested for grain was at 22%,” Gallagher said. “Corn condition improved slightly to 48% good to excellent.”
Now as far as soybeans go harvest statistically speaking has yet to begin across the state. Although we are ahead of the five-year average, the numbers look like this:
“Soybeans coloring or beyond reached 86%, six days ahead of both last year and the average,” Gallagher said. “Soybeans dropping leaves or beyond was 52% this week, six days ahead of last year and five days ahead of normal. Soybean condition also rose slightly to 47% good to excellent.”
We all know the old saying the bean crop is made with rains in August, yet most of the state didn’t have much of any this year so we’ll see how that correlates to yield. It’s also interesting to note that comparison of dropping leaves to the five-year average, perhaps there’s a relationship to this season’s near record planting progress also in regard to crop development, harvest timing and ultimately final yield for soybeans this growing season.
