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Farms In North Iowa Struggle With Wet Fields

Dean Borg/IPR file photo
Standing water in some farm fields is better suited to water fowl than to crops right now.

Water gleams between green rows of young corn and soybean plants in some north Iowa fields. Wild geese gather in small ponds where corn should be growing.

USDA’s weekly crop update issued Monday says, “Farmers in the northern one-third of the state are struggling with wet spots.”

Iowa State University Extension Agronomist, Paul Kassel, monitors 10 north Iowa counties stretching from Forest City to Sac City.  He says persistent, heavy rains have drowned some corn plants and slowed soybean planting.

“Any area that had drainage problems, that corn did not come up at all.” But Kassel adds, “Areas with good drainage, that corn looks tremendous. Some of that corn is eight to ten inches tall.”

In Eastern Iowa, Kyle Staley farms two-thousand acres near Solon.

“I think it was a little bit too cold and wet for too long,” he says. “There’s probably still time, but the stands aren’t nearly as good as last year. We just need heat.”

USDA’s June 6th Iowa crop update rates 80 percent of the state’s corn acreage in good to excellent condition, and more than a week ahead of normal at this stage of the growing season.

The soybean crop, with about 94 percent of the intended acreage planted, is nearly two-weeks ahead of last year and the five-year average