Planting of oats and fieldwork has been impacted by another round of spring storms that dumped snow, rain and ice across the state last week. Just 1.3 days were suitable for fieldwork, according to the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report released Monday, with farmers in the southern two thirds able to get into fields briefly to apply fertilizer and seed oats. But only 12 percent of the expected oat crop has now been planted. This is nine days behind last year and 10 days behind the five-year average. Northwest and north central Iowa have yet to get any planting underway. For the past week, temperatures were below normal, but we saw drastic ranges from north to south. The warmest reading was 85 degrees on April 14 in Sidney with one of the coldest readings of four degrees in Waukon on April 9. Precipitation was well above normal to the north and below normal along the southern border of the state, 3.91 inches in Spirit Lake and less than a quarter inch at several stations in the south. Snow was also widely reported across the state, Spirit Lake reported 20.1 inches over the seven-day period and last Friday’s storms saw two-inch diameter hail and wind damage to buildings and vehicles from the southwest to the northwest corners of the state.
