Northwest Iowa — According to the latest US Drought Monitor information just released, the drought conditions we experienced in our area earlier this summer have all but subsided.
There is still an area covering most of O’Brien County except for the northeast corner, about the west half of Sioux County, southeast Lyon County and extreme southwest Osceola County that is still in an area called “abnormally dry,” but there is no area in the four counties that are in what the Drought Monitor actually calls “drought,” except for a very small area in extreme southeastern O’Brien County.
The latest crop report is in, and the news is mostly good.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says that farmers continue to gear up for another harvest and he says “We’re seeing more activity in fields across the state as about 15 percent of corn and 8 percent of soybeans have reached maturity.” He says that moving into harvest season, the crop is very variable across the state with 60 percent of corn and 61 percent of soybeans rated as good to excellent condition.
Fifteen percent of corn had reached maturity, six days behind last year and eight days behind average.
Corn condition rated 60 percent good to excellent.
Soybean condition rated 61 percent good to excellent.
The third cutting of alfalfa hay was 95 percent complete, over one week ahead of last year.
Click here for the full crop report.
Click here for the latest US Drought Monitor information for Iowa.