CROPS IN CRISIS: Heat, Lack Of Rain Take Toll

The crop situation is deteriorating here in Iowa, with farmers in desperate need of rain.

In some places, if enough rain doesn’t fall, the corn won’t continue to develop.

The latest crop report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture shows just a little more than a third of corn and soybeans are rated good to excellent. Without rain that number is only going to fall.

“Corn and soybeans are both being stressed by the dry weather and high temperature and the condition both crops continue to deteriorate. Now only 36 percent of the corn and 38 percent of the soybeans are in good to excellent condition statewide, “says Ag Secretary Bill Northey.

Eighty-nine-percent of fields are already short on moisture.

“There are some producers that have lost their corn crop.  I’ve seen corn that, having lived through a drought myself, I don’t believe that there’s any hope for that corn.  There are a lot of good corn fields in the state.  So this is going to be one of those blessing and curse years.  It’s going to be a very unusual mix.  If you got lucky and got rain, say a big thank you,” says John Wittaker with the USDA Farm Service Agency.