Sunshine helps crops catch up in growth

The latest crop and weather report from the state ag department shows the 2003 crop is benefiting from this past week’s warmer weather. Tender corn and soybean plants suffering through a few colder-than-normal weeks benefited from the past week’s warmer temperatures. Eighty percent of the state’s corn crop is rated good or excellent this week; 79 percent of the state’s beans are rated good or excellent. The state’s hay harvest was delayed by the cooler conditions, but things bounced back during this past week’s warm weather and the first cutting of hay was completed on 72 percent of the state’s alfalfa fields. Only 20 percent of the hay was rated poor or fair. After a few dry years in portions of Iowa, the report shows most of Iowa has adequate topsoil and subsoil moisture.