It's day 12 - July 6th. My name is Moe Agostino, Chief Commodity Strategist with Farms.com Risk Management. We are starting our tour of the state of Iowa. We are traveling east on Hwy 18 near Boyden, Iowa.
Just some quick facts about Iowa agriculture: Corn, the yield record was last year at 192. We have about 13.5 million acres planted this year - that is down 500 thousand from last year. The corn is 79% good to excellent, poor to very poor 4% that compares to the national average at 75%. The Soys, the yield record was 56.5 that was 2015. 9.85 million acres in 2016, that is up from 9.7 last year. Good to excellent for soys is 77%, 5% poor to very poor, topsoil moisture 67% good to excellent on corn, 76% adequate to surplus on soys.
You can see over there the difference in planting window. This area was wet early, it got delayed by 1-2 weeks so that was probably planted mid-May this was planted probably closer to that mid-April timeframe. Everyone is probably about 1-2 weeks away from tasseling or pollinating. It is a little bit behind compared to last year, but overall it looks really good.
[Video clips of Iowa field conditions]
We are now traveling east on Hwy 169 we are just past Afton, Iowa. We came down to the south - the furthest we are going to go is to Creston, Iowa. From farmers that we have spoken to and from what the market was suggesting, is that the lower end of Des Moines or lower - east or west - was very dry. Guys were complaining about cracks in the soil that were perhaps larger than 2012. This looks dry, looks like it was planted late - maybe missing some rains but I am not seeing the cracks in the soil as everybody would want me to think it's like down here, I have talked to other clients and farmers in this area and they said they did get some rain, about an inch and a half here in the last week or so, Maybe they missed out but they did miss out but they did get some rains here so, this is not typical of what we have seen here so far, but I am giving Iowa a thumbs up and a wow! So far, what I have seen is really, really good.
[Video clips of Iowa field conditions]
It is day 13 - July 7th we continue our tour in the state of Iowa. It is our second day here. We are traveling west on County Home Road near Springville, Iowa. We did get another massive rain event this morning and that rain is probably going to take the corn and beans here in Iowa right to the end of July. We have some really good looking beans here, more than knee high. We did see in Grand Mound, Iowa some waist high beans which were planted about the end of April. We are not seeing any issues in the state of Iowa, it is looking really, really good.
[Video clips of Iowa field conditions]
It's day 14 - July 8th. We continue our tour in the state of Iowa - it's the 3rd day in the state of Iowa and we are traveling north on 218 - just west of 218. This is a nice looking corn field it's a good stalk, a good stand. As we travel further north I am noticing the corn is not quite tasseled like we have been seeing so it just tells me that this area may have planted their corn a little bit later than some of the early stuff. But no big deal it's just probably going to pollinate closer to the end of July. There is some heat coming into the forecast over that 8-14 days. Everything looks good here but we are still going to have to have a strong finish for this corn that is going to pollinate a little bit later.
[Video clips of Iowa field conditions]
It's day 14 - July 8th. We are heading north on 218 just north of St Ansgar, Iowa and we are going to end our crop tour in the state of Iowa for 2016. Folks, this state looks really, really good. We saw a lot of tasseled corn. A lot of even, uniform corn. Some really big beans down in Grand Mound, Iowa - had beans almost waist high. I've got to rate this crop, both the corn and beans, above average for this time of year - going to rate it a 9 out of 10. Iowa is the only state I am going to give a 'wow' too. I usually don't do that - I haven't given any state that yet, but from the farmers we have talked to it looks like this crop could be even better than 2015.