Some Eastern Iowa farmers have their best harvest in years

Good yields, great prices and ideal weather have combined for a golden harvest for some Eastern Iowa farmers.

“It's been the easiest and one of the better - if not the best - harvests I've ever had,” said Gary Edwards, 65, of Anamosa, a farmer since 1978 and a past president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Edwards said his corn yielded about 200 bushels per acre and his soybeans topped the 60-bushels-per-acre mark.

Both were harvested with minimal difficulty and expense during a month of dry, sunny days, during which the grain markets soared on news of reduced yields elsewhere.

For farmers fortunate enough to have normal-or-above yields, it doesn't get much better than that.

“It really depends a lot on where you are,” said Bill Northey, secretary of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. “If you have good yields, it is one of the best falls you could hope for.”

While farmers in northeast and east-central Iowa fared well this year, their counterparts south of Interstate 80 suffered with too much rain.

“It's been wet and ugly down there the whole season,” said Iowa State University Extension corn specialist Roger Elmore.

Ponding in lowlands caused numerous replantings, and nitrogen depletion drove corn yields below 150 bushels per acre in many locales, he said.

Those two factors, plus too many warm nights during the crucial seed-fill period in August, account for the sudden reduction in anticipated yields that elevated grain prices earlier this month, Elmore said.

While grain markets often hit yearly lows during the harvest, corn and soybean prices spiked following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Oct. 8 crop production report, which downgraded projected nationwide corn and soybean yields 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively, from the month-earlier predictions.

In Iowa, the anticipated corn yield dropped from 179 to 169 bushels per acre, which would make it the second-lowest in the past seven years. Since the report, corn prices have climbed 13 percent into the $5.50 per bushel range and soybeans have moved up into the $12 per bushel range.

Linn County farmer Curt Zingula, 58, called it his “easiest and most pleasant” harvest. Zingula said he spent a combined $67,000 to dry his 2008 and 2009 crops - a cost that shrunk to just $2,000 this year.

“I'm loving it. This harvest has gone at double or triple the speed of a normal year,” Zingula said.

With corn testing at less than 15 percent moisture - dry enough to go directly from the field to the bin - farmers have been unimpeded by the usual harvest bottleneck of running grain through a dryer before storage.

Not surprisingly, this year's harvest, now virtually complete, has been running about 31 days ahead of last year's and 18 days ahead of the five-year average.

From Sept. 26 through Oct. 22, a 27-day span that's the heart of the harvest season, the state had an average of 0.04 inches of rain, according to State Climatologist Harry Hillaker.

Good yields, great prices and ideal weather have combined for a golden harvest for some Eastern Iowa farmers.

“It's been the easiest and one of the better - if not the best - harvests I've ever had,” said Gary Edwards, 65, of Anamosa, a farmer since 1978 and a past president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Edwards said his corn yielded about 200 bushels per acre and his soybeans topped the 60-bushels-per-acre mark.

Both were harvested with minimal difficulty and expense during a month of dry, sunny days, during which the grain markets soared on news of reduced yields elsewhere.

For farmers fortunate enough to have normal-or-above yields, it doesn't get much better than that.

“It really depends a lot on where you are,” said Bill Northey, secretary of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. “If you have good yields, it is one of the best falls you could hope for.”

While farmers in northeast and east-central Iowa fared well this year, their counterparts south of Interstate 80 suffered with too much rain.

“It's been wet and ugly down there the whole season,” said Iowa State University Extension corn specialist Roger Elmore.

Ponding in lowlands caused numerous replantings, and nitrogen depletion drove corn yields below 150 bushels per acre in many locales, he said.

Those two factors, plus too many warm nights during the crucial seed-fill period in August, account for the sudden reduction in anticipated yields that elevated grain prices earlier this month, Elmore said.

While grain markets often hit yearly lows during the harvest, corn and soybean prices spiked following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Oct. 8 crop production report, which downgraded projected nationwide corn and soybean yields 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively, from the month-earlier predictions.

In Iowa, the anticipated corn yield dropped from 179 to 169 bushels per acre, which would make it the second-lowest in the past seven years. Since the report, corn prices have climbed 13 percent into the $5.50 per bushel range and soybeans have moved up into the $12 per bushel range.

Linn County farmer Curt Zingula, 58, called it his “easiest and most pleasant” harvest. Zingula said he spent a combined $67,000 to dry his 2008 and 2009 crops - a cost that shrunk to just $2,000 this year.

“I'm loving it. This harvest has gone at double or triple the speed of a normal year,” Zingula said.

With corn testing at less than 15 percent moisture - dry enough to go directly from the field to the bin - farmers have been unimpeded by the usual harvest bottleneck of running grain through a dryer before storage.

Not surprisingly, this year's harvest, now virtually complete, has been running about 31 days ahead of last year's and 18 days ahead of the five-year average.

From Sept. 26 through Oct. 22, a 27-day span that's the heart of the harvest season, the state had an average of 0.04 inches of rain, according to State Climatologist Harry Hillaker.