(Le Mars) — 2017 was an unusual year for farmers. They saw everything from too wet conditions during planting to being too dry during the critical growing and pollination period. You may recall planting was delayed for a few weeks due to the cool and wet conditions during April. Then by mid-May, mother nature finally cooperated with farmers and provided much needed warmer temperatures.
Joel DeJong, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Crops Specialist said nearly 25 percent of the state’s corn crop was planted within one week.
Farmers were able to get a good start with their crops, and things were looking fairly decent through mid-June. Unfortunately, for many farmers in western Plymouth County a wide-spread hail storm damaged the corn and soybean crops. Akron farmer Randy Kroksh describes his corn and soybean fields following that hail storm.
Despite the hail storm, many farmers were not getting any moisture during the crucial growing and pollination periods of the crop. In Le Mars, there was no significant rainfall between May 22nd and July 25th. DeJong commented in early August the corn was under stress because of the lack of moisture.
Then in mid-August through September, the rains returned, and when farmers were able to harvest their crops in October and November, many farmers were surprised at the better than expected yields. Doug Schuur with the Farmer’s Cooperative Elevator in Craig said the corn was of excellent quality.
Joel DeJong believes farmers were able to get a decent harvest this year, mainly due to the surplus of moisture that was able to be built up early in the season, and that moisture helped carry the crops through the dry period of June through early August. The official crop yield production report will be issued by the USDA in mid-January, but early estimates say Iowa could produce nearly 2.5 billion bushels of corn.
