The 2026 crop year has been one of those where life handed us a lot of rotten lemons and asked us to make lemonade. Rain, hail, soaring energy prices, more rain, data wars, unreliable USDA numbers — and did I mention rain? In the weeks ahead, the laptop will be the most valuable tool on the …
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Fall continues to progress. Harvest is nearing completion, most cover crops are seeded and growing and fall fertilizer applications are underway. Anhydrous has not started yet as soil temperatures are still too warm, but applicators will likely be rolling soon.
Not much to report from east-central Iowa as the 2026 crop rapidly comes out of the field following a week of great weather. Variable continues to be the word that best describes yields. At this point, the number of fields harvested definitely outnumbers those remaining, and harvest will beg…
We got our first real taste of fall last week — a little rain, a dip in temperatures and some frost. Harvest was shut down for a few days as a result, but all operations in the area are moving forward once again. Soybean harvest is quickly wrapping up, and the long-term forecast looks great …
Lots of progress has been made in short order as farms push to make up for lost time following the wet September. Beans have become the center of attention for operations that have them in their rotation. The yield loss associated with combining soybeans at 8% moisture is something we all kn…
We've closed the door on one of the wettest Septembers on record for Iowa and one of the slowest starts to harvest that many of us have ever seen. Fortunately, that story is not continuing into October. The near and extended forecasts look fantastic, and combines everywhere are rolling as fa…
Wet conditions continue to cause delays across the region. Operations chopping corn are struggling to wrap up as the crop quickly dries down, while operations that need to be combining are struggling to get started. Overall, the number of corn acres harvested remains very small, and I haven'…
If one word could summarize the past week, and really the entire growing season, it would be ‘wet.’ Waterways have been running out of their banks, and tile lines are blowing with excess water across the region. The ground simply has no more capacity to absorb what continues to fall, and wha…
Chopping season is well underway in east-central Iowa, and some of the corn fields damaged by the August hailstorm are being harvested. Soybean fields are turning quickly, though I haven't seen or heard of any coming out yet. The weather this week is looking wet, wet, wet — so we will be usi…
With harvest approaching and little new to report, a brief look back at the 2026 growing season for east-central Iowa: April brought wet conditions and slightly delayed planting, though a dry May allowed farmers to make up ground quickly. June turned wet again, and while July opened hot and …
After several dry weeks, something many of us in east-central Iowa have been glad to see, rain returned this past weekend. Looking across the crops, we appear to be shaping up for a fascinating fall. Some fields are on track to smash yield records, while others will post a zero or near zero …
After a stormy and wet August, the forecast for the final week of the month looks gorgeous and fall-like, a welcome change for east-central Iowa. There have been some early reports of southern rust moving in, but nothing significant at this point. At this stage of the season some disease pre…
One more round of storms is in the forecast before the weather appears to finally dry out for an extended spell — something all of us in east-central Iowa would greatly appreciate after days of rain. In the wake of the recent severe weather, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig toured som…
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.
Severe storms rolled through east-central Iowa on Friday afternoon, Aug. 7. With them came a confirmed tornado, 90 mph winds and extreme hail. If you were in the bullseye of it all, your bean fields look more like cut hay, and corn fields have been reduced to toothpicks — some cut off below …
Fungicide applications have wrapped up, soil moisture looks excellent, the forecast looks great, and disease pressure remains low. The largest concern in east-central Iowa is that excessive rainfall may have led to loss of nitrogen on some fields, especially those that applied large amounts …
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…
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