USDA publishes Iowa’s annual crop progress review

DES MOINES — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its annual crop progress report recap for the state of Iowa. The analysis paints the picture of a year filled with major shifts in growing conditions, but shows most commodities held steady levels of quality.

2024 was a strong year for the top grain commodities. Both corn and soy finished October with the highest percentage of good-to-excellent conditions seen in at least five years, both falling between 70 and 80%. That’s despite a slow start to the growing season: Iowa’s corn conditions in May were the worst for that time of year in recent memory, while soybeans were closer to the middle of the pack.

Heavy rainfall in the early season slowed planting efforts, but a prolonged drought starting a few months later especially sped up corn maturation, according to the report, and got farmers started with harvest in mid-September.

“Iowa saw a wetter than normal July, but crops quickly matured with warmer than normal temperatures accompanied by dry conditions in the following months,” the report said. “Drought conditions developed through the growing season, speeding up crop maturity as nearly all of Iowa experienced some level of drought.”

By Oct. 27, 84% of the state’s corn had been harvested, 12 days ahead of the average, the report said. And the commodity was virtually all harvested by Nov. 17, 10 days ahead of average.

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The crop’s condition was remarkably steady throughout the year, spending 10 weeks at 77% good to excellent levels in August and September, with a slight downtick to 76% as harvest finished in October.

It was a similar story for soybean producers. Planting started early, in mid-April, but fell behind by mid-May. The grain emerged matured slightly later than average at some stages, but by Oct. 6, harvest was about halfway done, a week earlier than is typical, and by Nov. 3, it hit 98%, a whopping 11 days ahead of normal.

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Also like corn, soybean conditions held fairly steady throughout 2024. The number started at 73% good to excellent in early June, and aside from some brief dips over the summer, it gradually rose to 76% by the end of the monitoring period.

For the state’s oat crop, seeding was over a fifth of the way finished by March 31, an impressive 11 days ahead of average. Still, the season ended about on-track with the five-year average, and most oat harvests wrapped up by Aug. 18. Also worth noting was the crop’s condition: oats stayed above the 80% good-to-excellent mark for four consecutive weeks in the summer, despite starting May at 70%. That said, the grain ended up in about the middle, with conditions around 75% good to excellent by the end of the August harvest.

Hay conditions were also favorable in 2024, outperforming all of that last four years at almost every point in the growing season. It was an especially good year for alfalfa.

“This year’s alfalfa hay crop condition was the highest in recent years, averaging 78% good to excellent throughout the season,” the report said. “Condition never dropped below 72% good to excellent. The last crop condition rating of the season, on Aug. 25, was 77% good to excellent. In the previous five years the final crop condition rating was no higher than 57% good to excellent.”

Unlike any harvested commodity, pasture conditions swung wildly in 2024. The growing season started with most grassy fields in bad shape, and only about 20% rating good to excellent condition on the heels of a massive drought in 2023. Early rainfall pushed that number up considerably, getting as high as 76% over the summer.

But as precipitation slowed, conditions deteriorated almost as fast as they’d improved. Pasture conditions fell from about 75% good or excellent in mid-August back down to 19% by October’s end.

That said, soil moisture conditions in Southeast Iowa aren’t as bad as they could be. The region reported adequate topsoil and subsoil moisture levels in 68% and 53% of fields, respectively, in the final weekly condition report of the year, released Nov. 25.

“The final reporting period of the year was unseasonably warm and wet,” State Climatologist Justin Glisan wrote in that report. “Conditions were up to 10 degrees above average in southeastern Iowa with a statewide average temperature of 39.1 degrees, 4.8 degrees above normal.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com