The new U.S.D.A. crop report out Monday shows 76-percent of the corn crop is reported in good to excellent condition while beans are right behind with 75-percent of the soybean crop in good to excellent condition. Farmers in some areas are looking for more rain to help the crops in the final weeks of the growing season.
Tom Thompson farms 2,700 acres of corn and soybeans in Winnebago County between Thompson and Leland. “Crops just kind of hanging on…just up in an airplane actually earlier this week. Lot of drowned outs you can see. Crop looks pretty fair yet for how dry it is. But the sand spots are really starting to show some stress,” according to Thompson.
While there hasn’t been a lot of rain recently, one thing that has help are the cooler than normal temperatures. “The cool weather’s actually kind of saved our crop in this area. The good ground still looks (good), it’s got potential out there,” Thompson says.
He’d like to see some moisture to push from a good yield to the best yield. “We’re going to need some rain in the next couple weeks to really get that top yield,” Thompson says. The state climatologist says in the crop report that much of the northeast one-third of Iowa is still waiting for a substantial rain.