Floyd County above state average on corn and soybean yields

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The northeast corner of the state had the highest average yield in corn and soybeans last year, although Floyd County fell just short of the top tier in both categories.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reported on Friday that Iowa averaged 200.0 bushels per acre for corn and 58.5 bushels per acre for soybeans in 2022.

Floyd County was above the state average on both, with 204.6 bushels per acre on average for corn and 61.9 bushels per acre for soybeans. But that wasn’t enough to place the county in the top 29 counties that average 210 bushels per acre or more for corn or the top 24 counties that topped 63 bushels per acre for soybeans.

Kossuth County took advantage of being the largest county in the state to harvest the most corn for grain production in Iowa in 2022 with 57.1 million bushels produced.

Delaware led all counties with an average yield of 230.8 bushels per acre. Clinton, with 225.2 bushels per acre; Dubuque at 223.7; Benton with 221.7; and Cedar County with 221.4 bushels per acre average rounded out the top five counties for top yield per acre. Twenty counties exceeded the 215 bushel mark last year 2022.

Floyd County produced 28.15 million bushels of corn last year, down slightly from 28.21 million bushels in 2021.

The county produced 5.78 million bushels of soybeans last year. Kossuth County came out in this category as well, with 12.9 million bushels, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Forty-nine of Iowa’s counties averaged at least 60.0 bushels per acre. Scott County had the highest yield with an average of 69.1 bushels per acre. Dubuque, 68.6 bushels per acre; Delaware, 67.4 bushels per acre; Cedar, 67.0 bushels per acre; and Des Moines, 66.9 bushels per acre rounded out the top five highest yielding counties for soybeans.

Decatur County recorded the lowest average yield at 37.9 bushels per acre.