Iowa’s grain harvest nears endIowa’s grain harvest nears end

As the month of October comes to a close, harvest progresses in Iowa. Nearly 90% of the soybeans are harvested, and more than 60% of the corn has been combined. On the Paden Lawler farm near Union, Iowa, harvest is complete.

“We have been able to keep going since we started with really only one rain day,” Paden Lawler says. “We need the rain, but it’s nice to have this harvest complete.”

Paden farms corn and soybean ground in Hardin, Grundy and Marshall counties in north-central Iowa, with his wife, Heather, and sons Wade, 11, and Owen, 8. He says timely rains throughout the growing season kept his crops growing well and helped provide a better-than-average year on yields.

Iowa’s topsoil moisture condition rated 28% very short, 43% short, 29% adequate and 0% surplus, thus showing all of the state could use moisture. Subsoil moisture condition looks about the same with 28% rated very short, 44% short, 28% adequate and 0% surplus.

Corn harvest is one day ahead of last year and eight days ahead of the average. The percent of corn harvested varied by area of the state with just 38% and 39% harvested in northeast and south-central Iowa, respectively, and 82% harvested in northwest Iowa. Moisture content of field corn being harvested for grain was 18%, and on the Lawler farm, it was running at about the state average. Paden was running the corn through the dryer in his on-farm storage to get it down a few percentage points.

“We are fortunate to have several options for marketing our corn, and we don’t even include going to a co-op in that,” Lawler says. “We are taking it to ethanol plants, feed mills, or storing on-farm to be marketed at a later date.”

Corn condition has rated 65% good to excellent statewide. Soybeans harvested reached 88% complete, 11 days ahead of the average. The cool and dry weather pattern is expected to continue, thus allowing farmers to get harvest completed in a typically normal time, despite planting late due to wet conditions.