News

Clock ticking for Corn Belt farmers stranded by rain

There’s a growing sense of urgency across the Corn Belt as wet weather slows harvest and deteriorates crop conditions.

Southeast Iowa farmer Dan Keitzer says activity is at a standstill because of persistent rain.

“And I really think that time limit is getting a little more critical with all this water, because that promotes stalk rot, disease in the corn. Maybe fungus or mold-type diseases, so I guess the approach is going to be to go as soon as we can.”

The Mediapolis grower tells Brownfield they harvested about 24 acres of corn last week.

“The disease had really taken that number over, it was a number that had been fairly good for us in the previous years. But it really got hit hard by disease and it kind of deteriorated the stalk, and we were really concerned if we got a lot of rain and some wind it might go down. So we went in and kind of surgically took that number out of the field.”

Keitzer says several days in a row with overcast skies, drizzle and fog also raise concerns because fields aren’t drying out.