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Dry weather aiding harvest pace, subsoil conditions decline

A climate expert says Mother Nature has provided favorable harvest conditions for Corn Belt farmers.

Justin Glisan is the state climatologist for Iowa. “It’s a rapid harvest,” he said. “We saw similar conditions last year given how dry things were. It’s almost a mirror image of where we were last season with very dry conditions across much of the Corn Belt.”

But he tells Brownfield the dry conditions are having an impact on subsoils for the 2023 growing season. “We need some moisture in the tank for the next growing season,” Glisan said. “If you look at the soil modeling out there, we have very, very dry conditions. We would definitely like to get harvest completed and then turn that faucet on so we can get some moisture for next season.”

Glisan says drought continues to expand across parts of the Midwest.