GREENFIELD, Iowa – Corn growers in this state have put about 90 percent of this year?s corn crop in the ground. But that?s a statewide average and in some areas, and even on some farms, there?s still a long way to go.
On Thursday, Adair County farmer Doug Holliday was on his hands and knees in the field just west of his house in Greenfield. With a pen knife, he dug a few inches into the soil, to show how wet it was just under the surface.
?It just squeezes and makes a mud ball,? he said. “The season’s stayed cool and moist. For our area I’d say very moist. There’s been very few days that you’ve been able to jump into the field. ?
Corn planting progress in southwest Iowa is lagging behind this year; just 75 percent complete, compared to 98 percent completion in northwest Iowa and 97 percent completion in central Iowa.
There?s a corn ethanol plant about twelve miles north of Holliday?s farm. The local market has informed his decision to grow corn in the same fields year after year, instead of a corn and soybean rotation. This year, the weather isn?t exactly playing along.
?We’re corn on corn, and corn stalks don’t dry out as quick,? he says. ?It just stays damp and wet enough that we just can’t quite go. If we were following bean stubble we’d get along a lot better. And we maybe’ll have to go back to a corn/bean rotation. You know, you hit springs like this where it’s damp and you just can’t get it in.?
Holliday estimates he?s about halfway done with planting for this year. If he?s not done by June 1st, it puts him into his crop insurance policy?s late planting period and brings a new slew of decisions with it.
?We only need a couple days to finish up corn, to let us wrap it up but we’re just not getting it, because we stayed so damp,? he explained. ?But as you go further south from here it’s the same situation. There’s a lot of acres that are not in yet. The next week doesn’t look too promising.”
To hear more about planting delays in southwest Iowa, click the audio player above this story.
