Iowa crop outlook far different than 1 year ago

BONDURANT, Iowa — For the most part, corn and soybeans are looking good in central Iowa. Rains have been good, in some places too good, where crops had to be replanted due to crops being washed out.

“We are really in a good place at this point right. We’re coming into some cooler temperatures here later this week,” said Meaghan Anderson, ISU Extension Field Agronomist. “Both corn and soybeans are solidly into reproductive stages in many fields and we really like that reproductive stage to be long and temperate.”

Anderson was looking at a lush green soybean field near Bondurant in the heat of Monday afternoon.

“We have had just an absolute slug of moisture this year compared with what we’ve seen the last several years,” said Anderson. “Our crops had kind of like wet feet, those roots were in very wet soil for a lot of the season and that makes everything seem kind of sluggish as we get off to a start, but as the beans and the corn of both really sat down their roots they greened up.”

The spring planting was uneven in terms of lots of weather delays with rainfall. That could impact how the crops turn out in terms of yields. Also, the wet weather has meant more weeds and pests.

“Wet conditions have really resulted and kind of several downstream effects that have occurred as well as the mild winter, right, so we are seeing the heavier than average pest pressures. But we’re also seeing things like weed pressure be really high this year,” said Anderson. “We’ve had several years of high weed pressure and last year‘s problems show up the following year right because we’ve got all of the seed that ends up getting produced.”

On the positive side, there have been fewer instances of disease in plants due to the wet weather and hot temperatures of late.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com.