As spring planting nears completion, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig, says farmers are looking for more rain, particularly in severely dry areas of the state. “Farmers are approaching the end of the planting season and the corn and soybeans are emerging,” he says. “While much of the state received rainfall last week, it wasn’t enough precipitation to improve the widespread drought conditions. The second half of May is projected to be warmer and wetter and we need to see consistent rainfalls in the months ahead.” For the week ending May 16, there were 4.8 days suitable for fieldwork, which included planting, spraying, applying anhydrous and dry fertilizer and cleaning of terraces and fence rows. According to the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report, corn planting is 94 percent complete, about two weeks ahead of the five-year average. Only farmers in the west central region have more than 10 percent of their crop left to plant. Corn emergence jumped by 30 percentage points over the past week to 52 percent, four days ahead of normal. Eighty-three percent of the soybean crop has been planted, 18 days ahead of the five year average with 24 percent of the expected crop emerged, which is one week ahead of normal. Eighty-eight percent of the oat crop has emerged with some reports of oats headed. Iowa’s oat condition has been rated at 61 percent good to excellent. The full report from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service can be found at nass.usda.gov.
