Farm News, IA
10-12-07
Harvest season continues in Iowa despite wet fields
By Kristin Danley-Greiner, Farm News staff writer
Last week’s storms that brought high winds, hail, heavy rains and tornadoes
delayed harvest for a bit and caused even more crop damage to areas that
already had been hard hit recently.
Producer Keith Sexton in Rockwell City said that some areas in Calhoun County
received close to 2 inches of rain from the three recent heavy storms, while some
spots barely accumulated half an inch. Either way, the rain has hampered
harvest.
“Most fields already had a fairly full moisture profile, so the fields that received
more rain now have deeper tracks where farmers took out the crop,” Sexton said.
“Field conditions have allowed only 2.5 to five days of harvest, depending on how
soft fields are. I think harvest is being a bit delayed because of the storms, but
we are not at the panic point yet.
“I responded to the market signals of last spring and put about half of the acres
that typically would have went to soybeans to corn. So our soybean harvest is
complete and we are just getting a start on corn,” he continued. “I think that is
fairly typical for this area—there are still a number of soybean fields yet to
harvest and it is not uncommon to see large chunks of corn harvested.”
Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Mark Licht, who covers
Calhoun, Sac, Greene, Ida, Crawford and Monona, said that last week’s storms
didn’t do “a whole lot more damage than was already done, especially in the
western counties I cover (Ida, Crawford and Monona).”
“There were some high winds in some of my eastern coverage area (Calhoun,
Sac and Greene). More damage was done the previous week in Monona and
western Ida and Crawford, where some hail really knocked bean pods off and
high winds caused some heavy lodging,” he said. “Recent storms have slowed
things down a little by keeping combine shut down for a day or two. And of
course, anywhere lodging is, it becomes an issue, because there is more time
spent picking it up.”
Palle Pedersen, ISU Extension soybean agronomist, said that last week’s
standing water from the storms should “disappear quickly,” and the only damage
that will be seen stems from compaction upon returning to the fields, due to the
wet and saturated soils. He noted that harvest was delayed in some areas by
three to four days.
“I am close to being half done,” Pedersen said last week about ISU’s plots.
“Probably another 14 harvest days and I should be done. We are running behind
now, since everything matured at the same time because of the freeze.”
ISU Extension field agronomist Joel DeJong said that the harvest progress is
“about at a normal level” for this time of year.
“But corn is a little drier than it would be now compared to normal,” he said. “So,
farmers would really like a couple of non-rainy weeks, if they could.”
In central Iowa, farmers are virtually finished harvesting soybeans. John
Holmes, ISU Extension field agronomist, said that the rains did delay harvest
by a day or two. Most producers also were not combining any beans late last
week.
“Farmers were able to get back in the field and do corn Wednesday afternoon,”
he said. “Of course this varies from area to area. Several Wright County farmers
worked most of last week on corn, so we are starting to see many harvested corn
fields. Humboldt, Hamilton and Webster County farmers are also mainly working
on corn.”
However, bringing in the corn crop has been a problem for some producers who
are facing standability issues and a broad range of yields. Roger Elmore, ISU
Extension corn specialist, said that National Agriculture Statistics Service
(NASS) estimated crop damage last week up 1 percent for corn moderately to
severely lodged—from 15 to 16 percent of the total crop. Even before the rains,
combines were rolling ahead of schedule, according to NASS.
“High winds triggered lodging from July on,” Holmes said. “Farmers are anxious
to get those fields harvested. The first reports I’m hearing are that yields are
good, but not as good as last year. There are also those 220-plus bushels per
acre fields, out there so we’re seeing both ends of the spectrum. We have seen
quite a bit of tillage as soon as corn is harvested. Farmers are tilling stalk ground
immediately behind the combine. It’s easy to find a chisel plowed field around
Clarion.”
Fall tornadoes, storms, snow
Harry Hillaker, state climatologist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and
Land Stewardship, said that in Iowa, tornadoes occurring in October or later
account for 3.4 percent of all tornado occurrences, equally an average of one or
two a year.
“However, as is the case year-round with tornadoes, tornadoes tend to come in
groups,” Hillaker said. “Thus, we would typically see many in one afternoon or
evening, then we might not see anymore in the mid to late fall for several years—
thus average numbers don’t really tell the story very well. (Last week’s)
tornadoes represented the 10th year out of the past 29 years with tornadoes on
or after Oct. 1. The last time that Iowa saw tornadoes after Oct. 1 was on Nov.
12, 2005, when 12 tornadoes touched down causing about $18 million in
property damage.”
Damaging thunderstorms occur just about every harvest season somewhere in
the state, Hillaker said.
“Last year, for example, there was a devastating hail storm that moved across
extreme northern Iowa. These storms severely damaged crops from near Lake
Mills eastward to near Postville in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 4, 2006,” Hillaker
said. “Hail was as large as baseballs and in some areas was accompanied by
winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour.”
While excessive rainfall routinely causes harvest delays somewhere in the state
each harvest season, the lower temperatures accompanying the storms cause
problems, too.
“Although rain amounts typically decrease the later we get in the fall season,
lower temperatures also reduce evaporation rates, thus requiring more time for
soils to dry between rain events as we get later in the fall,” Hillaker said. “Thus
the probability of rain delays in the harvest season is about constant throughout
the fall season. The wettest areas in the state now are generally in northwest and
northeast Iowa from rains that came on Sept. 30 (mostly northwest) and Oct. 2
(mostly central and northeast).”
Harvest time in Iowa also has seen its share of high winds and snow, proving
counterproductive to picking the crops.
“Strong storm systems (not thunderstorm related) can bring high winds to all of
the state for hours at a time,” Hillaker said. “The greatest probability of these high
wind events in Iowa is in November, but they can happen any time during the fall
season. Snowfall can be a significant harvest hazard as the weight of the snow
can cause lodging of the crops and make subsequent harvest more difficult.
Obviously, the odds for snowfall increase the later we get into the season.
“Crop damaging snows have come as early as Sept. 25 (in 1942), but typically
the first significant snow event will come to some part of the state during the
second half of October,” he continued. “Last year, the first widespread snow
event did not come until Nov. 10, but that was a big one over northern Iowa with
Algona recording 9.5 inches. Early season snowfalls usually do not remain on the
ground for very long but in some colder seasons, a persistent snow cover may
develop as early as November, such as what happened in 2000 in northern
Iowa.”
Current yields surprising
Holmes added that soybean yields were good in some areas he covers and
disappointing in others.
“Many farmers had serious problems with sudden death syndrome (SDS) in the
soybeans,” he said. “This disease took at least 10 bushels per acre off from
yields in the seriously infested areas. Beans were dry again this year. Many
farmers harvested soybeans at 10 percent moisture or less.”
In Sexton’s area of the state, the later maturity soybeans are yielding better than
earlier hybrids, which comes as a surprise. But some soybeans crops are
sporting foul smells and are being rejected at the elevator.
“That’s different than the past two to three years, when relative maturity of the
variety had little influence on yield,” he said. “One problem in this area is where
soybeans stood in water for a couple of weeks or longer due to
August/September rains. They have a sour odor to them and the elevators do not
like to take very severely affected loads, because it is difficult to blend them into
good beans without ruining the whole lot.
“The parts of the plant that were in water have no salvageable beans and the
tops have some green, some moldy and some sour smelling beans,” he
continued. “We tried to salvage the tops of a 6-acre pond area and ended up with
around 15 bushels per acre. They graded 19 percent damage and 99.9 percent
sour. If the price of beans this fall were not at the high level it currently is, they
would barely pay for the fuel to combine them, let alone the wear on the combine
of running at 15 percent capacity. The elevator manager said he would be able to
get rid of a small amount of that type, but a large load would be turned away.”
Licht said that he’s surprised about the yields he’s heard reported in his area.
“For the most part, 55 to 65 bushels per acre are catching the soybean yields
and 180 to 190 would catch the corn yields,” Licht said. “That’s not to say there
are not some areas with higher or lower yields. As we get further into the corn
harvest, we’ll get a better idea these yields. Soybean harvest has surpassed the
halfway point and I know of many farmers who have finished up with soybeans.
Corn harvest is well underway and I’d estimate 25 to 33 percent being harvested
across my area.”
In ISU’s plots, the soybeans “look excellent,” Pedersen said.
“The majority of the fields are yielding above 50 bushel. As long as more fields
are yielding above 50 bushels than fields below 50 bushels, we should be okay.
Now we just need to target 55 bushels for next year.”
Producers in Plymouth and Woodbury counties lost some soybean yields,
DeJong reported, even upwards of 80 percent.
“We had more than three inches of rain in some neighborhoods,” he said.
“Yields are very mixed – from really good to not very good at all, due to moisture
stress this past summer. But, yields for corn are likely a little better than
expected, I think.”
Soybean rust
With the recent soybean rust case cropping up in Iowa, producers are not
concerned right now. Neither is Pedersen, who said that there is “nothing to
worry about at all.”
“The soybean rust diagnosis causes us no concern for this year’s crop, as the
early freeze of a couple of weeks ago took the remaining life out of our
soybeans,” Sexton said. “It is, though, a reminder that it could be another
potential yield-robber for next year’s crop.”
Licht said that by the time rust “made its way” to Iowa, the majority of soybeans
were at full maturity, therefore eliminating any chance of yield loss due to the
disease.
“And since it doesn’t overwinter in Iowa, we start a whole new ball game next
year,” he said.
Holmes said he was glad to see a positive identification made in an Iowa
soybean field this year.
“We’ve had soybean rust spores coming to the state since July, so it was only a
matter of time before a positive diagnosis was going to be made. The disease
needs a living host to overwinter. That means the rust will survive in very
southern Texas or in areas south of central Florida, so basically, the movement
of soybean rust starts over each season,” he said.