The latest crop report released Tuesday by the USDA shows the recent wet weather hasn’t allowed many farmers in Iowa to get into their fields. Iowa State University Agronomist Joel DeJong, who monitors a nine county region in northwest Iowa, says he’s not seeing a lot of combines moving around. “We’re hoping we get a little more activity as we get into this week, but it’s been a pretty quiet week as far as harvest goes,” DeJong said.

The USDA reports just eight-percent of Iowa’s corn and 26-percent of soybeans have been harvested. The corn harvest is more than two weeks behind the five-year average, while beans are nearly a week behind. Last year, Iowa produced a record soybean harvest of 572 million bushels, with a yield of 60.5 bushels per acre. DeJong is hearing a few early reports of this year’s bean harvest. “I think the lowest I heard was 54 (bushels per acre) and the highest was 74…a lot of them in that 60 to 65 range,” DeJong said.

The crop report indicates across Iowa, on average, there were fewer than three days suitable for fieldwork last week. While there’s been plenty of rain, there haven’t been high winds. DeJong says he’s NOT seeing a lot of problems with corn stalks tipping over, but it appears many fields could be vulnerable.

“I’ve been in a couple fields where I’m doing the push test, where you’re trying to tip them at about a 30-degree angle. A very high percentage are pretty easily pushed over and you can see they’re going to kink and lodge if we get one of those big winds,” DeJong said. “So, check your hybrids and know which fields have that risk and which ones can maybe tolerate it better and prioritize the corn harvest accordingly.”

link to crop report: www.nass.usda.gov/ia