Iowa farmers make progress on harvest

Iowa's farmers took advantage of more than four days without rain to harvest more soybeans in the week that ended on Sunday while waiting for corn to dry down in their fields.

Ninety-six percent of Iowa's corn acreage was mature, three days behind the five-year average, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Corn harvest advanced 9 percentage points to 19 percent complete, 18 days behind the normal pace. Moisture content of corn at harvest was estimated at 21 percent.

Seventy-seven percent of the corn crop was reported in good to excellent condition.

'Heavy rains across the southeastern two-thirds of Iowa early last week kept farmers out of the fields for several days, and as a result we remain well behind the five-year average,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey. 'The dry weather the last several days has been very helpful, and farmers will be working long hours to get the crop in when conditions allow.”

With almost the entire soybean crop dropping leaves or beyond, harvest reached 61 percent complete, nine days behind normal. Seventy-four percent of the soybean acreage was reported in good to excellent condition.

Grain movement from farm to elevator was rated 55 percent moderate to heavy, increasing 8 percentage points from the previous week.

Off-farm grain storage availability was 92 percent adequate to surplus. On-farm grain storage availability was 87 percent adequate to surplus.

Topsoil moisture levels were rated 4 percent short, 78 percent adequate, and 18 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture levels were rated 1 percent very short, 5 percent short, 80 percent adequate, and 14 percent surplus.

Southwest and south central Iowa were the wettest areas of the state with over one-third of the topsoil in surplus condition.