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Rainy Iowa State Fair week fuels optimism for corn, soybean yields

An economist points to a rainy week at the Iowa State Fair for his bright outlook when harvest gets underway next month. 

Christopher Pudenz with Iowa Farm Bureau says rain is forecast the final six days of the fair.

“There is an economic story behind that, Iowa is going to have a good corn crop.”

Speaking to Brownfield Monday at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, he said a farmer in western Iowa recently told him there’s much less disease pressure compared to last year.

“So with this last bout of rain that they got, and then now this rain that is forecast for this week, he thinks his beans are pretty well made and that corn could be a record.”

USDA’s August yield estimate for Iowa pegged corn at 210 bushels per acre and soybeans at 62.