Larry Peterson, Creston News Advertiser, Iowa –
Last weekend’s rainfall exceeding one inch was a drop in the bucket, literally, compared to what’s needed to salvage the effects of the drought of 2012 on area crops and pastures.
But, there may have been some improvement noted in south-central Iowa soybean fields, agriculture experts say.
As for corn, a week of windy weather combined with weakened stalks and temperatures in the high 90s just confirmed the state of this year’s crop. It’s time to get it harvested, before something worse happens.
Iowa’s corn crop is maturing about three weeks ahead of normal because of the early spring and the drought.
“The corn is too far along to be helped by rain,” Bill Northey said late last week.
Helpful rain
The secretary of Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship did acknowledge that rain could still help the soybeans fill out their pods, and that’s exactly what happened.
Creston received 1.22 inches of rain Friday through Sunday, bringing the month’s total to 2.91 inches. The statewide average of 1.29 inches last week, compared to normal of 0.91 inches, made it the wettest week in 10 weeks and only the second week of the past 15 weeks to be greater than normal rainfall.
“Any soybeans that were trying to fill their berries will be helped by the rain we got,” said Tracy Cameron, Gavilon Grain agronomist. “The ones hinging on maturity, that were yellowing, will not be helped much. I, personally, do not think this rain came at a time to add additional pods. The corn had basically gone into maturity mode, generally, so there’s not much good the rain could do for the corn at this point.”
The green has long faded from most of the cornstalks, and many area farmers are anxious to begin harvest a couple of weeks earlier than normal, in part because they are worried storms could knock down the weakened stalks.
“The stalks are weak. The shanks are weak,” Cameron said. “The corn plant has put all of its energy into root growth and staying alive. The top growth suffered. The stalks are not as stout as normal. When corn is stressed, it consumes itself. It’s susceptible to stalk rot. We’ve had some strong winds, and some (corn) has already fallen over.”
The problem is, the moisture content is not quite low enough for ideal harvest yet, and this isn’t a good year to add drying costs to a low-yield crop.
“There’s a lot of wet corn in the country yet,” Cameron said. “Some guys don’t want to combine 30-percent moisture corn and try to dry it in a year like this. You’d like it to be 15-16 percent. But, they may have to combine a little wetter if they want to avoid some harvest difficulties.”
Cameron said last weekend’s rainfall would have made a world of difference three or four weeks ago.
“That would have stretched us out a ways in the condition of the crop,” Cameron said. “We need more than a nice soaking rain like that to replenish the ponds and lakes, but now wouldn’t be a good time for a hard runoff rain. The last thing you need is mud when you want to get a poor crop out of the field.”
Late last week, a Professional Farmers of America crop inspection tour forecast 139 bushels per acre as an Iowa average for 2012 yield, well below last year’s 172. The projected soybean yield of 43 bushels per acre is also lower than last year’s 50.
But, both Cameron and Paul Goldsmith, Natural Resources Conservation Service district conservationist, said 139 and 43 would be pretty optimistic for this region. Drought-stricken fields may be closer to 100 for corn. It’s still too early to tell on the soybean yields.
“There might be small pockets that got some of those rains during pollination where you may find 150-bushel corn,” Goldsmith said. “But widespread, it could be hard to get 100. It doesn’t look good.”
Goldsmith said it will be an early harvest season, weather permitting.
“I talked to one farmer the other day who said he’s ready to go September first,” Goldsmith said. “I think in two weeks we’ll see a lot of people combining, whereas usually it’s mid to late September when it picks up like that. For the most part, corn is pretty much shut down.”
Soil issues
Goldsmith keeps a close eye on soil moisture content, and there’s a long way to go to make up for a year some 10 to 12 inches short of normal rainfall, on top of a light snowfall last winter.
“The soil profile is dry and parched,” Goldsmith said. “It will take some steady rains to soak in, to get some moisture carryover for the spring. It’s so dry right now, we could get 3 or 4 inches and it would all soak in, and we’d get no runoff for the ponds and streams that are so low.”
Even Hurricane Isaac will bring little relief, as only the southeastern corner of Iowa is expected to get some of the weekend rainfall associated with the movement of that tropical storm through the Mississippi River Valley.
Price hikes
The only bright spot for grain producers is the pricing trend. With such a wide swath of drought-stricken American farmland, the U.S. is expected to produce a corn crop about 4 billion bushels below original expectations.
Corn and soybean prices have both reached records above $8 and $17 per bushel, respectively, and some commodity analysts say demand could push them to the $9 and $20 levels.
