Crop report: Farmers harvest oats, bale hay

DES MOINES — Most of the State received below normal rainfall and experienced mild temperatures. These conditions allowed Iowa farmers 5.1 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending July 14, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Field activities included harvesting oats for grain, cutting and baling hay and applying fungicides.

Topsoil moisture condition rated 0% very short, 6% short, 84% adequate and 10% surplus.

Subsoil moisture condition rated 1% very short, 8% short, 82% adequate and 9% surplus. Corn silking or beyond reached 44%, one day ahead of last year and three days ahead of the five-year average.

Corn crop in the dough stage reached 6%, five days ahead of the average.

Corn condition rated 74% good to excellent. Soybean crop blooming reached 50%, three days behind last year.

Soybeans setting pods reached 12%, one day behind last year but equal to the five-year average. Soybean condition rated 72% good to excellent.

Oats turning color reached 82%, five days ahead of the average. Oat harvest for grain jumped to 26% complete, one week ahead of the average. Oat condition was 77% good to excellent.

The State’s second cutting of alfalfa hay reached 57% complete, five days behind last year but two days ahead of the average.

Hay condition rated 78% good to excellent. Pasture condition rated 71% good to excellent. Some pastures remain flooded and where floodwaters have receded some pastures are covered in silt.

Weather Summary

Provided by Justin Glisan, Ph.D., State Climatologist, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship

Iowans experienced near-normal temperatures for most of the reporting period before unseasonable warmth returned toward the end of the week; the statewide average temperature was 73.7 degrees, 1.0 degree below normal.

Weekly precipitation totals ranged from a trace at Spencer Municipal Airport (Clay County) to 2.56 inches in Lowden (Cedar County). The statewide weekly average precipitation was 0.70 inch, while the normal is 1.05 inches.

Little Sioux (Harrison County) reported the week’s high temperature of 94 degrees July 13, eight degrees above normal. Mapleton (Monona County) reported the week’s low temperature of 53 degrees July 10, nine degrees below normal.