(Radio Iowa) – Due to recent good weather, harvest activity in Iowa is progressing at a pace that’s a few weeks ahead of normal. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says despite all the obstacles of the pandemic, this has turned out to be a good growing season for most Iowa farmers.  “We’re ahead of schedule on harvest and, you know, we’re hearing some OK yields, all things considered,” Naig says. “Certainly western Iowa got started first and now you are seeing it really work across into eastern Iowa.”

Naig says the exception to the positive harvest news would be areas impacted by the August 10th’ derecho that flattened many fields in the central third of the state.  “It’s bad,” Naig says. “There’s millions of acres that were significantly damaged and folks are having to go out and it’s hard work to get that crop picked up. A lot of those acres were declared a total loss and they’ve settled with crop insurance. A challenging year no doubt, one that a lot of us want to put in the rear view mirror from the harvest standpoint.”

Naig says a USDA risk management agency administrator will be in Iowa today (Thursday) to take an up-close look at the derecho-damaged areas. The U-S-D-A’s weekly crop report issued Monday showed one quarter of Iowa’s corn crop had been harvested. That’s more than three weeks ahead of last year and 12 days ahead of the five-year average. The report found 55 percent of soybeans have been harvested — only the second time in the last 15 years that at least half of the Iowa soybean crop was harvested by the first Monday of October.