The heat and drought have continued to cause Iowa crops to deteriorate. The U.S.D.A. crop report out Monday shows the corn condition declined by three percentage points in the last week where 46% is rated in good to excellent condition.
Soybeans took a bigger hit, dropping five percentage points to average 44% in good to excellent condition. Dolph Ivener found issues in his cornfield in western Iowa that started with brown leaves.
“Pull the ear off and you can see it’s tipped back, which means it didn’t fill all the way out, it ran out of moisture,” he says. Ivener estimates big swings in yields from 200 bushels per acre on his farms with heavier rainfall to around 40 in spots stifled by a third year of drought.“Until you run the combine you don’t know. And it 100 percent is a lack of moisture,” he says.
The crop report shows 38% of the corn crop has reached maturity, which is one week ahead of last year and six days ahead of normal.
(Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio contributed to this story)