Many farmers in Iowa have yet to start their combines, as harvest activity has been delayed for a variety of reasons, including recent flooding in northwest and north central Iowa. Climatologist Harry Hillaker says replanted fields are of particular concern. Hillaker says about eight percent of the state’s corn crop and about eight percent of the soybeans had to be replanted because of heavy rains in late May, and he doesn’t expect that replanted ground to yield much because of this year’s very cool growing season. Hillaker says this was the third-coolest summer on record, and Iowa crops in general didn’t mature as quickly. Hillaker says each summer month was more unusual than the one before it — with June a couple of degrees cooler than the typical June, July about three or four degrees cooler than usual, and August about five degrees cooler than normal. The warmer-than-normal September has been terrific for Iowa crops. He says September’s average temperature may be warmer than the average temp in August. That hasn’t happened in Iowa for 107 years, and Hillaker says it helped to get some heat at the tail end of the growing season to help plants “catch-up a bit.”
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