Less than half of the past week, only 2.4 days, was suitable for fieldwork across the state according to the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report for the week ending May 23. “A noticeable shift in the weather brought warmer and wetter conditions across much of Iowa last week as many farmers wrapped up planting,” says Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig. “Cooler temperatures have led to emergence issues in some areas, but warmer weather forecasted for this week should really push the crop along.” Corn planting is now at an estimated 97 percent complete, two weeks ahead of the five-year average, and emergence reached 75 percent, five days ahead of normal. The first corn condition rating of the season showed one percent poor, 21 percent fair, 64 percent good and 14 percent excellent. Eighty-nine percent of the expected soybean crop has been planted, 15 days ahead of average and emergence jumped by 29 percentage points over the past week to 53 percent, nine days ahead of the five-year average. Farmers in south central and southeast Iowa still have at least 20 percent of their soybean crop to plant, but some areas may need a few days to dry out for fieldwork to resume. The full report can be found at nass.usda.gov.
