Joe Sperfslage operates a family farm in Linn County near Coggon, growing 1,800 acres of corn, 800 acres of soybeans and 150 acres of wheat.
Moisture in the fields looks excellent, disease pressure remains minimal, and fungicide applications are continuing across east-central Iowa. The biggest concern on our operation right now isn't in the field, it's in our diesel tanks. Diesel isn't an input we discuss often, but with prices w…
Hot and humid pretty much sums up the weather lately. Spotty storms were appropriately called so last week — most guys missed most or all the rain, but some got a welcome shot. As I write this Monday morning, the first of two rounds of widespread rain is moving through the area. A notable de…
The crop report from east-central Iowa this week is a simple one — things look good and not much has changed. Corn has begun to hit its reproductive stages, and disease monitoring continues. Soybean fields are canopying nicely and looking great, but we all know how beans can surprise us, so …
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the primary story in east-central Iowa continues to be rainfall. We are currently considering ourselves fortunate not to have received some of the volumes that other parts of the state saw over the past week. The earliest-planted corn in this are…
The rain has subsided, allowing bean post-emerge applications and sidedressing to nearly wrap up across the area. Summer heat has arrived, and growers are monitoring disease progression in corn carefully to determine whether this year's conditions will justify the ROI for a two-pass fungicid…
Recent weeks have been cool and damp, perfect weather for fostering disease. Much to my disappointment, conversations with my agronomist last week verified that Iowa State Extension has already confirmed the presence of tar spot in central Iowa. It's important to note that tar spot overwinte…
Field work continues, though in a limited fashion, as farmers manage to squeeze into the fields for a day, maybe two, before rain pushes them back out. Looking ahead, the weather pattern appears to continue this trend for the near term at least. Aside from some localized flooding and wind da…
Last week's weather was about as close to ideal as one could get here in east-central Iowa. Farm operations were able to move forward uninhibited with sunny skies and calm winds before rain moved in Thursday evening and continued off and on throughout the weekend. The forecast is calling for…
Post Memorial Day weather has been excellent. Winds have been calmer, allowing sprayers to return to the fields. Some operations have begun to sidedress corn, and most of the first hay cutting appears to have come off without being rained on. Over the weekend, we managed to snag a few tenths…
The past week brought measurable rain over several days, giving the soil the opportunity to soak it in and loosen the crust for easier emergence. The cool weather that followed has put a pause on crop development, but the forecast is turning much warmer. With the excellent moisture we have i…
Not much to report here. Planting wrapped up for the most part last week, and the forecast looks perfect for an even and fast emergence.
After a slow start to planting, most concerns have been eliminated by a week of excellent progress, and most guys in this area will likely be wrapping up this week. After an April of unrelenting rain, some are already voicing concern that the spigot may have prematurely shut off on us. We wo…
The weather pattern in east-central Iowa finally seems to be turning the corner. Fields are starting to dry out, and equipment is beginning to move, though overall planting progress remains minimal at this point. We continue to watch the forecast closely as the window to make up lost ground …
Between the volume of rain and its frequency, meaningful field work across east-central Iowa has largely been limited to tile repair. A brief window opened up the first half of last week for some spraying to take place and a handful of planters to roll on lighter ground, but heavy rain retur…
It was a good week for book work. It was so dry we’re not going to get anywhere anyway that gets us in the field. We also had hail and tornadoes going around us. Manchester, northeast of here, got bombed with rain. Farmers are itching to get out, but we’ve had lots of big storms the past few weeks.
Joe Sperfslage operates a family farm in Linn County near Coggon, growing 1,800 acres of corn, 800 acres of soybeans and 150 acres of wheat.
Joe Sperfslage operates a family farm in Linn County near Coggon, growing 1,800 acres of corn, 800 acres of soybeans and 150 acres of wheat. Sperfslage is the Linn County Farm Bureau vice president and a board member of River Valley Cooperative in eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. “About ha…
We finished fall tillage and fall fertilizer applications. We have wrapped up field work. We’re waiting on warm days later this week to wash up equipment and put it away for winter. Overall, it was a year of peaks and valleys. Happy with the early growth and good start, but disappointed in h…
I started fall tillage and got fertilizer on about half of it. We’re making repairs among after-harvest duties. Beans and corn wrapped up for about a week with a little shower early last week. Still got tillage to do. We have had good yields. The farm average corn yield hit 250 bu./acre. Mea…
I finished corn and baled some stalks to wrap up harvest 2025. Now we’re preparing for post-harvest tillage and fall fertilizer. Our work with cattle went good, and they’re set to be gone and we’ll start with some new ones.
We’ll wrap up harvest with corn this week with about 100 acres left to get. It’s good to have so much done A little rain didn’t slow down corn. Yields look good for us with 220 bu./acre on the low side and up to 280 on areas sprayed with fungicide. I might start some fall tillage this week. …
We wrapped up harvesting beans and moved on to corn yesterday (Oct. 12). It’s really dried down a lot — from 24% to 15% in a couple of weeks. We’ll keep plugging away at harvesting corn — maybe 70% left to do. We’re seeing yields of 250 plus for those that got fungicide on it. We may work th…
It’s sprinkling and I hear more rain is coming today. We are about 70-80% done harvesting beans. Yields are pretty good, ranging 60-80 bu./acre, but most of it closer to 70-80 bu./acre for field averages. By mid-week, we’ll finish beans and switch back over to harvesting corn.
We had a warm week and we’re getting another one. We got in the field for corn harvesting at Kirkwood Community College and at home. All equipment is working as it is supposed to do. We’ll start on beans this week — hoping to see decent bean yields. Corn yields show a yield difference of abo…