Crop Updates from Iowa Corn Leaders - Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Bob Bowman of DeWitt in Clinton County, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB), estimates that he has received between three to four inches of rain in recent days. There standing water in some fields. He and his son were able to prepare their tillage strips last week, but they haven’t planted any corn. Bowman says the soil temperatures are still very cold. He prefers to plant corn in warm soils so that seed emerges within a week. He doesn’t want the seed left in cold soils where they are susceptible to diseases. He says it’s still chilly in eastern Iowa.

Nick Leibold of New Hampton has had about an inch of rain since Sunday. He hasn’t started planting corn and only knows of a couple farmers in the area who have planted a few acres. The cold temperatures and rain have kept everyone out of the fields. Leibold had some tiling done last week, but says even that was a wet and slow process. With this week’s forecast of temperatures in the 50s and wet conditions, he doesn’t expect to get into the fields soon.

Roger Zylstra of Lynnville, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA), has received about three inches of rain recently, which has halted planting in his area.  He was able to get about 50 percent of his corn acres planted. Farmers in his area were able to plant about half of their corn acres last week. Now, he waits for warmer, drier weather.

Carl Jardon of Randolph also was able to plant about half or more of his corn acres last week. Many farmers in his area of southwest Iowa were able to get a majority of the corn planted. A lot of corn was planted on Saturday. He received rain on Sunday and since then it’s been damp, overcast and drizzling on and off.  Jardon says an old weather saying is – if it rains on Easter, it will rain the following six or seven Sundays. He says we’ll see if that saying holds true. So far it has.