Iowa farmers took advantage of good weather last week and harvested the most corn for the first week of November since 1993. The U.S.D.A.’s weekly update shows, as of Sunday, 82-percent of Iowa’s corn crop is harvested. That’s two days behind last year and one day behind the five-year average.
In Eastern Iowa’s Jones County, Randy Tonjes finished harvesting corn Sunday night on his 1,400 acres near Monticello. He credits favorable weather for drying corn that was containing up to 28-percent moisture. “About 10 days ago, it seemed to drop about five or six points just instantly and it’s been coming down ever since. So, we finished up on our earlier hybrids and those are significantly down in moisture,” Tonjes said.
The U.S.D.A.’s update states the corn harvest is lagging in southwest and south-central Iowa where only about two-thirds of the corn crop is out of the field. The soybean harvest is 96-percent complete, three days behind last year’s pace.