Cold weather brings end to growing season

As Iowa farmers harvest their crops, the recent cold weather has brought an abrupt end to the growing season. George Cummins, a crop specialist with the Iowa State Extension office in Floyd County, says this week’s hard freeze should -not- affect corn and soybean crops. Cummins says the paltry amount of rain much of the state’s received over the last few months will cause a decrease in corn yields from one year ago. Counties in north-central Iowa should see average yields of 145-to-160 bushels of corn per acre, down from 170-to-180 last year. Cummins says soybean yields will not be as good as last year either, somewhere around 30-to-40 bushels per acre as opposed to 45-50 last year. Cummins says precipitation will not help this year’s crop, but moisture is still needed for next spring. Cummins says one positive thing he noticed this year was spraying for soybean aphids seemed to improve yields, so there may be more spraying for aphids in the coming growing seasons.