© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Iowa Harvest Still a Little Behind Average Pace

Michael Leland/IPR
Eighty-six percent of Iowa's corn has been harvested.

Sunny, dry weather is speeding Iowa’s corn and soybean harvest that has been running up to a week behind the traditional pace.

That’s especially true in North Iowa where persistent, heavy rains are leaving standing water in grain fields.

“The last three days, the ground has really straightened up quite a little,” says Randy Broesder, who manages elevators in Forest City and nearby Kiester, Minn.  “We’ve went back after some beans this weekend. So, I’d say today beans are 98 percent done. Corn, we’ve probably got about 20 percent of our corn acres to do yet. And, some of that, in the peat ground and that, will probably have to stay until it freezes because there is still standing water.”

The USDA’s weekly update says 86 percent of the corn acreage is harvested, just a day behind the five-year average.  The state’s soybean harvest is about 95 percent complete, five-days later than normal. Southwest and south-central sections of the state are lagging most.

Broesder says the wet fields in North Iowa are giving him extra time to accommodate the crop.

“We’ve dumped corn on the ground in my Kiester location,” he says.  “In Forest City, here filled the flat storage. Today, things are getting tight, but we are hauling to an ethanol plant. So, as long as they stay open we should be able to handle the rest of the crop that we’ve got to come to us.”

Broesder estimates about 20 percent of the corn crop in the Winnebago County area near Forest City is still in the field.