It’s day 11; we’re starting our tour in the state of Iowa. Day one of two days we’re going to do in the state of Iowa. Just to give you some quick facts about agriculture in Iowa – it’s July 6th, 2015. Iowa is ranked number one in both corn and soybean production. We’re not even going to talk about wheat – we may have as much as 40,000 acres of wheat that get planted in Iowa, ranked probably in 37th. The average size of the farm is 331 acres. Average annual precipitation is 43.35 inches. Iowa is one of the largest hog and egg production states, with 27% of the total hogs being produced in the state of Iowa. In the latest USDA Crop Conditions Report, Iowa is one of those states where conditions held quite nicely so for the last three weeks or so, corn good to excellent – 83%. Very poor to poor – 2. Soy very poor to poor – 3. Good to excellent at 78%. 96% of all the beans were planted as of June 28th, so most of those beans got in the ground. So far I’m not seeing the – I’m seeing a little bit but - both the beans and the corn look quite good. We’re standing in front of a more than chest high corn. It looks like it’s just about to tassel here probably in the next week. It looks green and lush.
We’re travelling west on highway 18. We’ve come from the South Dakota border. We’re near Sheldon, Iowa, and folks, it’s looking good in Iowa. The corn looks really consistent, there’s very little variability. The beans look really awesome and great. I almost got knee high beans here in this field. And again, a lot of consistency, very little weed pressure. It’s early in the tour for the state of Iowa, but we’ll keep you posted. But, it’s looking good in Iowa.
We’re travelling west on highway 3; we’re near Cherokee, Iowa. Folks, I’m not seeing many issues in the state of Iowa. I did finally see some shorter looking beans, but the corn is looking pretty amazing, although still behind last year for this time of the year. But I’m not seeing any weed pressure, I’m not seeing any moisture pressure and I’m not seeing any disease pressure. It’s early – we’ll keep you posted.
It’s day 11 – day 1 of the US Crop Tour in the state of Iowa, and we’ve travelled further north. We wanted to go into Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, because they’re big production areas up here. This is some of the best ground in Iowa and they can produce some pretty big yields up here, but I’m very disappointed with what I’m seeing. The state of Iowa had decent rain in May. It wasn’t a lot like some of the eastern states, but they did get probably as much as 8-12 inches of rain here in the month of June and it’s starting to show up. I haven’t seen a lot of weed pressure or disease pressure, but I’m seeing too much moisture pressure here in these counties. I have not seen a corn field yet that’s tasseled in Iowa. There probably are some but so far I haven’t seen any. This crop is behind. It’s at least one, maybe two weeks behind compared to what I saw last year. At this point, I’m really going to estimate that it’s an average crop. We’ll keep you posted, but I’m disappointed. There’s some good looking corn, but there is too much of the yellow corn – that moisture stress. It’s happening both, and we’re starting to see that variability and unevenness in the corn crops and that moisture seems to maybe slow down some of that crop development. Maybe even the lack of heat units are showing up. We’re not getting the 85-90 degree days. We’ve got some beans in the background there too as well, and they’re decent looking. Just sprayed, but again, too much yellowness showing up in the fields.
It’s day 12, July 8th, 2015. It’s day two of the US Crop Tour in the state of Iowa. We’re travelling north on highway 13 near Manchester and as we’ve travelled further north, this area is not looking too bad. A lot of lush, green corn and beans. The corn is about head high. Probably another week or so, maybe two weeks away from tasseling. Some of the corn is a little shorter than I’d like it to be. We’re seeing still some moisture stress, some yellowing in the corn and the beans as we travel further north, but not looking too bad up here.
We’re concluding our US crop tour in the state of Iowa. It’s July 8th, day 2 of two days in the state of Iowa, and we’re in McGregor, Iowa, just about to cross into Wisconsin. As we’ve travelled through Iowa, the left west quadrant was really good – no issues out there with corn and beans. As we’ve travelled further south into highway 71 and then back north into Kossuth and Humboldt County, which are big corn and soybean production areas, we saw too much moisture like we’ve been seeing a lot on our crop tour. As you travel further south and I was just past DesMoines, there’s a lot of water in fields, lakes, standing water just like we’ve seen in many other states along our tour. As we’ve come back north through Cedar Rapids and here into McGregor, the crops look a lot better. They’ve had decent moisture and they’re getting some heat here. The crops look a little bit behind. I’ve not yet seen any tasseled corn along the crop tour in Iowa. Some farmers are suggesting there was some south, past Des Moines, but it was small crops, and the corn was a little short. If I’m going to rank Iowa, unfortunately I can’t rank it in any of the top 5 states. There’s too much issues here. Probably top 10, but because of that southern part, I have to knock Iowa down. And unfortunately, it’s going to be a drag on the national corn and soybean yield. There’s still some growing left in the season, but many are concerned that if heat comes with the short root structure in both the corn and the beans, that could be a problem. Crop in Iowa – there’s some good stuff but there’s also too much bad stuff so I’m going to call it an average crop in the state of Iowa.