Crop Updates from Iowa Corn Leaders – Wed., Sept. 24, 2014
Posted on September 24, 2014 at 7:27 PM by Iowa Corn
Iowa farmers are anxiously waiting for crops to mature and for harvest to begin. 92 percent of Iowa’s corn crop was in or beyond the dent stage last week. Leaves are turning color on 79 percent of the soybean crop.
Roger Zylstra of Lynnville has started harvest. He says the corn is still quite wet. It is running around 26 percent moisture, but they wanted to start on some acres that needed to be harvested early. Corn yields haven’t been as huge as some reports from Illinois, but they are decent. He harvested a small field of soybeans that yielded in the mid-60 bu./acre, which he was very happy about. He’s finding that his flat ground acres for both corn and soybeans are not yielding as well because of the excessive moisture they received in June. The rolling fields seem to be yielding better. Carl Jardon of Randolph is waiting for Mother Nature to dry his crops a little more. His soybeans are not ready yet. He’s expecting 80 degrees at the end of this week and hopes that heat and drying helps finish the crops.
Bob Bowman of DeWitt expects he’s about a half a week away from starting to harvest. Several neighbors have tried a little but the crops aren’t ready. Some short season soybeans have been harvested in the area. He still has some corn that hasn’t black layered yet, so they are waiting and hoping for some warm, dry weather to finish the crops.
Nick Leibold of New Hampton had frost on Sept. 13 that affected about one-fourth of corn and soybeans in the area. All of the low-lying areas had plants that were hit pretty hard. Farmers will wait and see how that will affect yields. He’s looking forward to good weather this week help finish the crops. His corn needs some heat to finish maturing. Last week, Leibold had 150 acres of cover crops aerial seeded. He seeded oats and radishes and will be interested to see how that works. Other than that, he’s getting his equipment and augers ready for harvest.
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