By Ben Nuelle
Harvest activities and fall tillage are nearing completion. Tiling, terracing, and fertilizer applications continued last week. The National Agriculture Statistics Service released the Iowa Crop Progress Report Monday. State Statistician Greg Thessen said farmers are 96% complete with harvest. He said this matches what farmers would normally have out by the November 15th date.
?In Iowa we actually break the data down by crop reporting district and across most of the state they are wrapping things up. The one area lagging behind is southwest and south central Iowa. They still have almost 10 % of their corn left to harvest as of the November 15th date. With the past rain, they probably aren?t getting much done now so still about 10% down in that area,? Thessen said.
Thessen says crops got planted later than normal last spring and they have a little bit longer growing season causing it to lag behind. He said when it comes to the Corn Belt as a whole, there was two different stories.
?The northern and western Corn Belt seemed to have the really good yields this year. I guess with a lot to harvest, they started out a little bit behind normal on their corn harvest. For most of those northern and western states, they ended up just a little bit above normal except in Nebraska and South Dakota. Their corn harvest was just a little bit behind for the entire season. If you move to the eastern Corn Belt, in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; they started out quick and they were well above normal harvest pace all season long it looked like,? Thessen said.
The Crop Progress report also stated topsoil moisture levels rated 0 percent very short, 8 percent short, 85 percent adequate, and 7 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture levels rated 2 percent very short, 12 percent short, 81 percent adequate and 5 percent surplus.
