Statewide planting stays ahead of schedule, despite rain

DES MOINES — The latest USDA Crop Progress report said Iowa farmers were slightly ahead of schedule planting corn and soybeans, despite rainfall limiting days suitable for fieldwork.

Statewide, 39% of corn planting is complete, as is 25% of soybean planting. Southeast Iowa, however, lagged slightly behind the rest of state, with 25% of corn and 23% of soy now in the ground. Some farmers — around 2% — say they’ve already got corn emerging. The report did not specify where those growers were.

“Although the week began with dry weather, by Friday severe storm systems brought cooler temperatures and rain which allowed Iowa farmers 4.2 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending April 28, 2024,” the report said. “Corn, soybean, and oat planting advanced early in the week, but came to a halt for most as storms arrived.”

Soil moisture continues to improve. Topsoil conditions rated 5% very short, 17% short, 68% adequate and 10% surplus. The numbers represent a 15 percentage point drop in topsoil moisture shortages from the previous week’s report. Subsoil conditions, meanwhile, were 14% very short, 27% short, 53% adequate and 6% surplus.

In Southeast Iowa, specifically, topsoil looks even more wet, with 2% of land very short on moisture, 3% short, 69% adequate and 26% surplus. Subsoil levels were 17%, 15%, 56% and 12%, respectively.

The region had more rain than other parts of the state last week, with only 2.9 days suitable for fieldwork.

An Iowa Environmental Mesonet data station west of Wellman has reported 4.42 inches of rain throughout April, the second-highest precipitation level recorded there for the month since observations began in 2013. Another, close to Crawfordsville, showed a whopping 5.43 inches of precipitation for the month, the highest April total there on record, dwarfing last year’s measly 0.95 inches.

The storms are expected to reduce a long-standing drought in the region. The Iowa Drought Monitor on Thursday, April 25, showed 0% of Henry County in drought conditions, along with 25% of Jefferson County.

A narrow sliver — about 2.5% — of Washington County, on the southeast corner, also showed zero drought risk on the map, a first for the county in months. Over 5% of the county remained under “severe drought” conditions, with the rest at “moderate risk,” as of Thursday, but weekend thunderstorms were expected to lower those numbers, with some of the region’s heaviest rainfall for the week centered on Fairfield.

“This active storm track also brought much-needed rainfall across the drought region, along with reports of hail and high winds,” State Climatologist Justin Glisan said of the weekend storms.

Pasture conditions across Iowa improved with the rainfall. The Crop Progress Report showed 16% in poor or very poor condition, 41% fair, and 43% good or excellent condition. The report said pastures and hay ground were greening up, but said higher temperatures would "aid in growth.“

That seems to be in the cards for the Eastern Iowa which was unseasonably hot last week, with Iowa City reporting the state’s highest temperature at 84 degrees on April 27, 18 degrees above average.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com