2022 Charles City area harvest shifts into high gear

By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

ISU Extension Agronomist Terry Basol and his wife took a trip north to the Twin Cities this past weekend, and when they returned to Northeast Iowa, the landscape had changed.

“Put it this way – right away I knew the guys had been pretty busy,” Basol said with a laugh

“The guys,” of course, are area farmers – guys and gals who kicked the 2022 harvest season into high gear over the weekend, taking advantage of the weather to start bringing in their crops, especially soybeans.

“You can’t ask for better harvest weather,” said Basol, who is stationed in Nashua. “Really, September was great for the crops because with the limited amount of rain we saw, we got some naturally drying conditions. And now we’re pretty much off and running. If this weather holds, our growers are going to get a lot done in the next two or three weeks.”

Farmers certainly began making a dent in the harvest in the past week, according to the weekly Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report that was released on Monday by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

The report showed that in the northcentral district that includes Floyd County, 27% of the soybean crop had been harvested as of the beginning of the week, up from only 3% the week before. The report said 8% of the corn crop had been harvested, up from just 1% the week before.

In the northeast district, which includes Chickasaw County, 19% of soybeans have been harvested in the state’s Northeast District, up from just 3% the week before. Corn harvested in the district jumped from 1% to 7%.

Basol said the farmers he has talked to are reporting good to excellent soybean yields and he added that he expects the news to be just as good for corn.

“I’ve talked to some guys who say they’re getting 70 bushels of soybeans (per acre) in spots,” the agronomist said. “And from everything we’re seeing, we’re going to have a great crop of corn, too. Now, it’s just a matter of bringing it in.”

Basol said he was relatively unconcerned about the forecast of widespread frost possible Friday night into Saturday morning.

“We’re far enough along, I think, or at least most of the crop is,” he said.

And while commodity prices are excellent right now, Basol said continued dry weather would be helpful to growers.

“Prices are good, no doubt about it, but inputs have been high, too,” he said, “so if we don’t have to turn the dryers on, that would be very helpful for farmers.”

The good news is that the short-term harvest forecast looks pretty dry; in fact, there is little, if any, precipitation in the forecast through early next week.

According to the state crop report this week, the moisture situation is better in the northcentral district than in any other part of the state, with 70% adequate topsoil moisture and 65% adequate subsoil moisture, although there is still a significant 30% of topsoil that is short or very short of moisture, and 35% subsoil moisture short or very short.

The northwest part of the state is in drought conditions, with 53% of the topsoil short of moisture and 31% very short.