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Looking back on Iowa’s 2024 harvest season

Iowa’s climatologist says the 2024 harvest season was a pleasant surprise.

Justin Glisan says many farmers overcame significant weather challenges. “With the amount of moisture we received through the early growing season, we had some delayed planting and replanting, but overall I think we were pleasantly surprised given the four-year drought we finally busted.”

But he tells Brownfield there were some areas of the state that struggled. “There was some variability out there, especially northwestern Iowa where we had record flooding in the middle of June, a one-thousand-year event. You had a lot of farmers up in that corner that didn’t pull a crop out of the field.”

Glisan says he’s hopeful the state receives some winter precipitation to help give farmers a jumpstart on healthy soil conditions for the next growing season.

INTERVIEW: Iowa climatologist Justin Glisan