Day 2

General observation it has been wet for some time as very few beans have been sprayed.  Color is pale and weeds are doing just fine.

Iowa River in Belle  Plaine  was out but no flooding in anything but lowlands.  Corn needs sunshine and a period of drying .   Consistently seeing water damage / crop is planted. 

First stop crop was corn.  The was north of Belle Plaine in Benton County .  Field had overall good color low weed pressure but corn was brittle and needs no severe weather/wind.  Corn was consistent with other  fields in the immediate area.   This field was corn following beans at 35,000 at V6 we rated the crop a 9.   Soil corn yield rating was 189-198 BPA 



Benton County IA

Second stop of the day was in Grundy County IA.  The field was planted to seed corn.  Corn had been planted in mid to late May.  The area was wet and crops sounds some slight pressure from water in the lower areas.  The population of the field was 38,000 at V4 growth stage.  The condition of the crop was and 8 out of 10.  This farm had a soil corn yield rating of 209-210 BPA.



Grundy County IA

We traveled north to Eldora and then headed west on SR 30.  The third stop was in Hamilton County IA near Webster City.  This  field also was  seed corn production.  The field was very wet, but great soils.  If we knew the farmer, we would have apologized about dragging some of his field out on the road on our shoes!  The planted population was 38,000 at V6 growth stage.  We rated this as an 8 on the condition scale.  Soil corn yield rating was 199-205 BPA.





Hamilton County Corn



 

 

 

 



Hamilton County Soybeans



We continued towards the southwest to Carroll County.  Our fourth stop was in a very rolling field of corn in a very hard drizzle.  The population was 35,000 with a condition rating of 8.  The corn was at V6 growth stage.  The soil corn yield rating is 149-153 BPA.



Carroll County IA



As we travel towards Omaha this evening, the area doesn’t look quite as good as North Central Iowa.  This land is not as good and the crops don’t look quite as good either.  However we still would rate them no worse than a 6 in the worst fields and most fields over 7.

During May, the crop progress reports showed Iowa going from 6% planted in the first week of May to 69% after the second week and 92% after three weeks in May.  We found the crops confirmed these reports.  Corn in Iowa is for the most part very even and consistent in the growth stage.  In our random sample we did not find one field of corn following corn.  That seemed strange to us as well.  I would say that we expected to see some bigger corn on the trip in Iowa, but we did not see anything over V8-V9 but most everything is V5 to V9.  Amazing consistency!  Iowa needs dry weather, heat and sun.  The only watch out for Iowa is pollination period.  Since the crop is so even Iowa will be suspect to a hot week of weather during pollination.  However, if they get through that week or 10 days unscathed,  this crop appears to be bullet proof.