The latest U.S.D.A. crop report out Monday shows a majority of the corn and soybean crops have emerged, but some farmers are heading back to the fields. Corn and soybean growers in a six-county area of southwest Iowa have to replant thousands of acres of crops destroyed by last week’s wind and hail storms.
Iowa State University’s southwest Iowa Extension Agronomist, Aaron Saegling rates the damage that stretches from Oakland to Council Bluffs as among the worst he’s seen during his 25-year career. “Those plants are gone. They’re not laying down in the field. They’re gone. They’re just not even in the field,” Saegling says, “And so that tells me there is probably as much wind as hail. We have some fields that are pretty bare.”
Saegling says farmers can try to get a crop out of some of the fields. “There will be a lot of soybean replanting. A lot of the corn I don’t believe will make it. …so a lot of those acres will probably not be replanted because it’s pretty late in the year.” Saegling says many barren fields will be getting erosion-preventing cover crops.
The U.S.D.A. report says 98-percent of the corn crop has emerged, which is 18-percent ahead of last year and 4 percent ahead of the 5-year average. The report says soybean planting is nearly complete and 87-percent of the crop has emerged. That’s three weeks ahead of last year and about one week ahead of normal.