Yields strong, progress varies on 2023 harvest

Both rain and and a cold snap in temperatures made appearances in Adair County weather headlines in the last week, but other than that, farmers across the area were able to make a good dent in the harvest of the area’s corn and soybeans.

Ralph Lents, whose farm is based in the northern part of the county, said Thursday, before the rain and dip in temperatures came Friday and Saturday, that a good amount of soybeans had been harvested in his area.

“I’d say they’re 75% done with beans on the northern end of the county. Corn, they’re just getting a good start there,” Lents said. “The corn’s really drying down — like down around 16% right now — and that’s pretty good. You can start binning that stuff and not have to worry about drying it. Yields are above expectations.”

In the southern part of the county where Jordan Kralik’s farm is based, he was observing much of the same. Yields are above average, especially corn. Soybeans are about where he would expect them to be.

Kralik said that as you went farther south from Creston Thursday, farmers had barely begun to harvest. A lot of years he won’t start until after Oct. 10, he said, but he was rolling already. He said he’s hearing the corn in his area was still wet, sometimes around or in excess of 20% moisture.

Lents said that the way many area fields received rain had a big impact on why yields are how they are.

“We fought some cold soils, but we got a real good, early start to the planting. It came up pretty uniform. We had a dry June, then about the first of July she started raining and for about six weeks she kept raining. We hit a bit of a hot spell, but then it rained a little again,” Lents said.

Adair County has been much more fortunate than other areas of the state, which are facing severe drought. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reported last week that an area of east-central Iowa is facing exceptional drought — the worst dryness designation, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

About 96% of the state is suffering from some sort of drought.

“I would say we had timely rains, and that’s really what kicked this thing into gear,” Lents said.