Farming in Warren County in south-central Iowa, Randy Miller says he will likely finish harvesting his 2020 soybean crop early this week. Statewide, Iowa farmers had 97% of the state’s soybeans harvested as of Nov. 1, according to USDA’s weekly survey. Iowa’s corn harvest is 87% complete.

“We stopped combining soybeans two weeks ago when the beans got really dry in the field,” Miller says. “We’ve had a dry growing season and a dry fall, and we planted our beans early this year,” he says. “We were losing too much yield in the field by harvesting beans too dry. You get shatter loss at the combine head. So, we went to harvesting corn instead. We waited for some rain and then got started combining beans again on Nov.1.”

Good harvest weather 

Soybeans in Miller’s neighborhood near Lacona are yielding above average this year compared to the past few years. Corn yields are running a little below average.

“Iowa’s crop progress continues to be ahead of normal, compared to past years, with 97% of the soybeans and 87% of corn now harvested across the state,” notes Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “The weather forecast for this week looks favorable and should allow farmers to make good progress in the field as harvest wraps up.”

The complete weekly Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report is available on USDA’s site at nass.usda.gov/ia.

Crop report

Rain and snow early in the week that ended Nov. 1, along with cooler temperatures, limited Iowa farmers to 5.3 days suitable for fieldwork, according to USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service. Fieldwork activity included harvesting corn and soybeans, baling corn stalks, applying fertilizer and manure, and moving grain to town. Tillage is also underway.

Topsoil moisture condition is rated 13% very short, 28% short, 58% adequate and 1% surplus. Subsoil moisture is rated 19% very short, 34% short, 46% adequate and 1% surplus.

Only 13% of Iowa’s corn for grain crop remains to be harvested, over three weeks ahead of last year and 13 days ahead of the five-year average. Statewide, the moisture content of field corn being harvested for grain fell 1% last week compared to the previous week. The average last week was 15% moisture for corn grain.

Farmers in northwest, north-central and west-central Iowa have less than 10% of their corn for grain remaining to be harvested, while farmers in south-central Iowa still have over 30% to be harvested.

Only 3% of Iowa’s soybean crop remains to be harvested, just over three weeks ahead of last year and two weeks ahead of average. Farmers in northwest, north-central and west-central Iowa have few fields left to harvest with 1% or less of their soybeans remaining. In contrast, farmers in the southern one-third of the state have 9% to 10% of their soybeans left to be harvested.

Livestock producers continue to allow cattle to graze on corn stalks, and there’s plenty of good cornstalk grazing in Iowa this fall.

Weather summary

“Colder-than-average temperatures persisted across Iowa during the week ending Nov. 1,” says Justin Glisan, state climatologist at the Iowa Department of Agriculture. “Much of western Iowa reported weekly departures of as much as 16 degrees below normal. The statewide average temperature was 35.4 degrees, 12 degrees below normal.”

Light snow fell across much of the state early in the week. But unseasonably dry conditions prevailed over Iowa for the rest of the week, with driest conditions in eastern Iowa. Precipitation departures of up to 0.70 inch below normal were observed in the state’s southeast corner.

Weekly precipitation totals ranged from no accumulation at several stations in northeast Iowa to 0.45 inch at Mapleton No. 2 (Monona County) in western Iowa. The statewide weekly average precipitation was 0.08 inch, while normal is 0.51 inch. Donnellson (Lee County) and Lamoni (Decatur County) reported the week’s high temperature of 69 degrees F on Oct. 31, an average of 12 degrees above normal. Estherville Municipal Airport (Emmet County) reported the week’s low temperature of 5 degrees on the Oct. 27, which is 27 degrees below normal.

U.S. beans 87% finished

Looking at the national picture, U.S. corn harvest progress increased 10% during the week ended Nov. 1, says USDA. As of that date, the survey shows 82% of the U.S. corn crop was harvested, versus a 69% five-year average. Illinois farmers have 89% of their state’s corn crop harvested. Nebraska corn harvest is 86% complete; Iowa is 87% done.

While a few states are near completion of this year’s harvest, most major corn-producing states have 20% to 30% of their crops still in the fields, according to USDA. Meanwhile, most major soybean-producing states are ahead of their averages for harvest progress. As of Nov. 1, USDA says 87% of the U.S. soybean crop had been harvested for 2020, which is ahead of the 83% five-year average.