From Peoria, I took St Route 116 west to US 34 in Burlington, IA. Again crops were a carbon copy of what I had seen from champaign to Peoria. One notable exeception was the glaring lack of control of water hemp in bean fields. It was obvious who used a good residual program and who didn't. 12-24" water hemp is going to be a challenge to control at this point. Otherwise these crops looked great.
The afternoon was spent taking US 34 from Burlington to Ottumwa and 92 to Indianola, IA. This part of Iowa is arguably one of the toughest parts of the state to grow corn and soybeans. Overall the crop conditions exceeded my expectations. As a general rule crop progress was a week or two behind Illinois, but they all looked great. At Indianola, we hit the first off several rainstorms. It dropped about .7 in 5 minutes along with two minutes of marble sized hail. As I visited a farmer a few miles west, they had not received by a tenth or two. Des Moines in areas received 3-6 inches. Spotty rain to be sure. Crops looked very good around Indianola. The farmers thought that the crops were off to a little later start than the past years, but still looked good with better moisture than the past two years. They are preparing for a big crop.
Off to Ames to spend the night.
Day 2 results in North Central Iowa later today.
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