Crop Updates from Iowa Corn Leaders – Wed. May 21, 2014
Posted on May 21, 2014 at 4:43 PM by Iowa Corn
Farmers continue to make planting progress as the weather allows, with 84 percent of the corn and 40 percent of the soybeans in the ground last week, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture. Planting progress remains behind the five-year average, so farmers remain anxious to take advantage of every opportunity to get in the field.
Bob Bowman of DeWitt in Clinton County, president of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB), and his son are busy planting corn and soybeans today while the weather allows. The weather is supposed to be good through the weekend so they hope to get done planting. Tuesday was the first time they have been able to plant for more than a week after receiving quite a bit of rain last week. The corn that was planted early is up and looks good.
Nick Leibold of New Hampton is busy planting corn too. He says it is finally warm while he’s out in the fields. He was able to plant a little on Sunday. He is hoping to finish planting on Wednesday and then plant soybeans the rest of the week. He hasn’t seen any corn emerge in neighboring fields. Most farmers in his area should be done planting this week if the weather holds.
Roger Zylstra of Lynnville, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA), finished planting on Monday. His corn has emerged and is looking good. Some of his early-planted soybeans have emerged as well. All of the fields in the area are looking good.
Carl Jardon of Randolph says corn in his area is not looking great. He has seen three colors of corn. Some is green and nice. Some is yellow and some is brown where it had some frost last week. He’s hoping that some rain falls and the warmer temperatures will help the corn turn around. He finished planting soybeans Sunday night. Many of his neighbors are done also. He estimates that 80 percent of soybeans are planted. Jardon says it has been hard to get any spraying done as the wind never seems to stop.
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