Crop report says rain is needed

The weekly crop report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture released Monday says rain is needed in most parts of the state and signs of crop stress have been seen in some areas. Jasper County Farm Services Agency director Steve Kennedy recently checked out the crops in his central Iowa area. He says he saw some corn that was “firing” and he saw another problem with soybean aphids. Kennedy doesn’t know if a quick rain, or steady soaker is more important. He says he doesn’t know how much rain we need, but he says we do need some to allow the cord kernels and bean pods to fill out. Kennedy says there is some moisture in the fields, but you have to dig down to find it. He says he’s heard that some tile lines still have water running out of them, so there’s still subsoil moisture. He says the corn roots can go down a long way and beans tolerate the heat a little better, so it’s not a dire situation. But, he says we need some rain. The crop report says the statewide corn conditions rated two percent very poor, eight percent poor, 27 percent fair, 49 percent good, and 14 percent excellent. The soybean soybean conditions were two percent very poor, nine percent poor, 30 percent fair, 47 percent good, and 12 percent excellent.