News

Majority of Iowa crops remain in good to excellent condition

More than three quarters of Iowa’s corn and soybean crops are in good to excellent condition.

USDA’s latest weekly crop update says 77 percent of corn and 76 percent of soybeans are rated good to excellent.  More than half of corn has reached the dough stage, which is three days faster than normal.

Soybean development is a little off the usual pace with 58 percent setting pods.

Syngenta agronomic services rep Jesse Grote covers the central part of the state and says the wet growing season has created a lot of variability.

“Whether that’s in the variability of how the crop dries down, depending on planting date. I think in some fields where they have set wet and continue to sit wet, we have to be careful about causing a lot of compaction this fall too when we’re out there with our heavy harvesting equipment.”

Brownfield spoke to Grote during a Syngenta Grow More Experience plot tour near Slater Friday.

Iowa farmers were busy last week harvesting oats for grain, cutting and baling hay, and apply fungicides.