Crop Updates from Iowa Corn Leaders - Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Last week weather conditions were ideal for planting. Iowa farmers were busy in the fields with nearly half of expected corn acres being planted, about 7 million acres, and almost 20 percent of soybeans being planted, or about 2 million acres, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

Roger Zylstra of Lynnville, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA), finished planting corn last week and was able to get more than half of his soybean acres planted.  Storms rolled through on Sunday night. Zylstra did not have any damage but received quite a bit of rain through Monday. They’ll have to wait for fields to dry out before they finish soybeans but he is happy to have gotten so many acres planted last week.

Carl Jardon of Randolph also finished planting corn a week ago and was able to plant half his soybean acres last week.  He received two inches of rain, Sunday through Monday and doesn’t expect to be back in the fields until later this week. He says the rain is welcomed. A lot of corn has emerged and looks really good.

Bob Bowman of DeWitt in Clinton County, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB), has been busy planting corn. Bowman and his son implement strip-tillage. They have been busy applying fertilizer and planting until rains halted progress. In addition, they do some custom spraying. Bob says the weather is a variable every year and wind has definitely played a unique role this year.

Nick Leibold of New Hampton has about half his corn planted and says most farmers in his area have about the same amount done. Leibold received rain on Saturday night. He had about two inches of rain Sunday and early Monday.  He says the wet conditions will keep them out of the fields until later this week.