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Iowa corn and soybean yields might be records
New harvest projections are rosier, but crop prices lag
Corn and soybean farmers in Iowa might post record average yields for both crops this fall, according to a report Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The department revised its estimates higher from a month ago and now predicts corn yields might average 212 bushels per acre. The record is 204 bushels per acre in 2021.
Soybean yields might tie the average yield record of 63 bushels per acre, which also happened in 2021.
Those estimates will continue to be refined in the coming weeks as harvest proceeds and more yield data is available. Some harvesting in Iowa has begun, especially of early planted soybeans.
Planting season this spring was interrupted in many areas of the state by persistent, heavy rainfall. That sometimes led to adjacent fields being planted weeks apart.
Optimism for record yields swelled early this year, which began as one of the Top 10 wettest on record. That ended a four-year drought.
But the state has been relatively dry in recent weeks. Rainfall totals for August averaged about 27 percent below normal, and there was no rainfall last week in more than half of the state, according to Justin Glisan, the state climatologist.
Soil moisture conditions have regressed, and about two-thirds of the state is abnormally dry, according to a U.S. Drought Monitor report Thursday.
Still, about two-thirds of crop field topsoil has adequate moisture, the USDA reported this week. A year ago, only 21 percent of the soil had adequate moisture.
Jubilation about record crop yields has been muted by lower crop prices. Corn is roughly half as valuable as it was two years ago.
Despite the expected decreases in income for corn and soybeans, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said overall farm income still is expected to be better than the 20-year average.
"The reality is that over the course of 2021, '22 and '23, we saw farm income at a level that actually, when you compare it to previous years, would certainly be the best farm income in the last 50 years or perhaps ever," he said at the recent Farm Progress Show in Boone.
Comments: (319) 368-8541; jared.strong@thegazette.com
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