CROP CONDITIONS: Record Early Harvest

After a long drought-filled summer there is finally some good news for Iowa farmers in the latest USDA crop report.

For the first time in months, less than half the state’s corn is in poor condition.  Fifty-two-percent of the corn crop is rated at fair condition or above. Twenty-two-percent of the corn has been harvested. That’s the furthest the harvest has been in mid-September on record.

“I expect harvest to continue to advance rapidly as farmers look to get drought stressed crops out in a timely manner,” says Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey.

Soybean conditions also improved over the last week, just 34-percent are now in poor condition. Only six-percent of the crop has been harvested, with most of that coming from northwest Iowa.