John Tiedeman farms near Hull in Sioux County with his wife Erica. They grow corn and soybeans, contract feed pigs and also feed cattle. They also have a small cow-calf herd. Tiedeman does some custom spraying and planting in his area.

Most of the area has been pretty aggressive when it comes to planting. We had eight-tenths of an inch of rain over the weekend. A few farmers have a decent portion of their soybeans out already, while others have started on corn. Everyone got a good start on spraying last week. The few pastures around here are greening up nicely.

It has been wet in the area. Not a lot of progress was seen last week. There's a chance for more rain over the next two days. Some guys finished planting. I would say about 75% of the soybeans are done in my area. Some are just getting a good start on corn. I’m guessing about half of the corn has been planted in this area.

We are starting to see some crop emergence. South of us it looks like they're pretty well wrapped up on corn planting. If they aren’t, they should finish things up this week considering the forecast we have. We did have some showers north of us late last week, but it only held people up for a day or two.

Things are looking pretty good. Nearly 100% of the crop has been planted. The last couple days I’ve seen a few fields of rye getting laid down. The majority of the crop has emerged. Even places that were just planted in the last week or so are emerging. There is some replanting going on near George because of a hard rain right after planting. Most of the spraying has been done in this area.

Crop advanced pretty rapidly in the heat last week. Got some much-needed rain north of Highway 18. Cold weather over the weekend should slow everything down a little bit. The guys that are putting in soybeans behind their rye crop probably would like to have them in around Memorial Day weekend. Appears to be a lot of weed pressure this spring so far, presumably from the dry conditions when the pre-emerge chemicals were applied. Cool, wet and breezy forecast for the next few days. Sprayers will be hitting the fields again when the weather improves.

We had a cool, wet week. That really slowed things down. Pretty much the only planting left to do is with guys who cut rye and planted soybeans behind it. Crop emergence looks pretty strong, although the corn is pretty yellow right now. There does look like there's been some wind damage in the area, but I think the corn will come out of it.

The crops look good. We had a good growing week last week. We finally got some heat. It was a good week for spraying, but it’s probably too windy at the moment. There is a chance of rain tonight (Monday) and tomorrow, but no one will complain about an inch or two of rain. We are getting lots of smoke from the wildfires in Canada.

The crops look pretty good. Last Tuesday and Wednesday we got a fair amount of rain. We had around 3 inches near me, with more in other areas. There was some hail with it, and I think some replanting will need to be done. We had been pretty dry up to that point. It’s windy and cold this morning (Monday), but it’s supposed to warm up later this week.

They had a good rain south of here Sunday, but not much here. Crops look good. Most are wrapping up corn spraying and getting a good start on spraying beans. I would say corn is in the V5 range or so. Some ditches are getting mowed. A lot of alfalfa was laid down a week ago after the last round of rain.

Things look pretty good. In my neighborhood we had some heat stress last week, but we got a quarter inch of rain this morning (Monday) and the corn unrolled nicely. Some parts of the area got rain last week but not a lot. It was just enough to keep people out of the field. There is rain in the forecast, but we hope we can stay away from severe weather.

Most of the area received some nice rains this week. As the trend has been, less rain to the north. The heat and precip has advanced the crop pretty good this week. The fields that had looked uneven from the cool spring are all looking more even and darker now. Not much hay in this area, but the spotty precipitation has made cutting difficult, both in hay fields and grass waterways/ditches.

We got a couple more timely rains this week. The crops are progressing nicely. Beans that need to be re-sprayed are getting finished up before the rows close. We should start seeing some tassels emerge with corn any day now.

The crop looks really good. We had more timely rains last week, and that is really helping. We got a good start on corn tasseling. I would say it's half done by now. Everything is nice and green. I'm not seeing much leaf disease or insect pressure yet. Most are just starting with spraying fungicide and whatnot. We are doing some foliar feeding this week.

It’s sounding like a broken record, but we got a couple more timely rains this past week, with a little more falling to the south. It was well needed for the hot week that is in the forecast. Pretty much all the corn has tasseled. We are starting to see a few fields that are brown silked. There are reports of some high populations of corn rootworm beetles emerging, so spraying has started for them. Most areas seem to have very good plant health with very little leaf disease currently.

Same story every week — caught a couple nice rain showers this week in between the hot spells. Sprayers continued to stay busy in the corn all week. Most of the soybeans are fully into R3 stage, so spraying has started there as well. Crops continue to look excellent.

A storm came through the area on Monday night (July 28) with derecho-level winds that also dumped a lot of rain and hail in some areas. There is fairly wide-spread damage to crops and buildings. In addition to the wind damage, a fair amount of sudden death syndrome has popped up in soybeans. Still spraying fungicide in beans and spraying corn for rootworm beetles.

We had a fairly uneventful week. Most of the spraying seems to have wrapped up for the season in both corn and soybeans. SDS continues to show up in soybeans. Leaf diseases are quite prevalent in some cornfields that didn't get sprayed.

We had about 2 inches of rain overnight into Monday morning. The crops have not changed much over the past week. We still have a few weeks until we’re able to chop silage. We’re seeing more SDS in the soybeans. I have been hearing a few reports of diseases in corn. That’s even in the fields that have been sprayed already.

Disease pressure continues to spread in both corn and soybeans, but at this stage of maturity most growers aren't trying to manage it any longer. Some of the early varieties of soybeans that were planted early are starting to show signs of turning. I would expect to see some corn getting chopped this week.

We had a few scattered showers through the area again this week. Choppers have started. Local co-ops have reported average silage moisture samples in the low 70s. More beans turning, but I would expect it to be about three weeks before that harvest starts on a large scale.

A lot of operations have started cutting silage. Mixed reports of moisture and yields. Downed corn from the late July wind storm has been a significant problem through Sioux and Lyon counties. Soybeans are slow to turn this year. A warm week ahead is sure to help speed that along. Not widespread, but there are a few producers that started some soybean desiccation this week, so they should be harvesting in two weeks.

Another nice week, but not a lot of crop progress outside of the guys chopping silage. I have heard a few reports of guys starting some soybeans in the area, but I assume most of the soybeans will not be fit until later this week or the following week. We received three-fourths of an inch of rain this morning. Good chance of more rain coming this week which should help speed the bean maturity along a bit but will slow harvest progress.

There wasn't much done last week with the rain showers we had. I heard they had 1 inch of rain overnight in Sioux Center with possible hail. In my immediate area, I think people will really get going this week. A few are grinding corn.

Pretty good progress on soybean harvest in the area this last week. Yield reports are coming in mixed. Sounds like most guys are a little disappointed, thinking they would have produced a few more bushels than they did. Have seen a few combines poking into corn, but most of the corn is on the wet side yet. The guys grinding ear corn will probably be about wrapped up this coming week. It appears that the wet soil conditions earlier in the season have given a good start to the fall-planted cover crops this year.

Soybean harvest has been pretty well completed in the area this last week. Corn dried down several points with the hot weather we’ve had. There were a few scattered showers through the area over the weekend but nothing that will delay harvest progress. A cooler week ahead and very little precip in the forecast should mean a productive week for corn harvest. Have not seen a lot of manure application in the area yet but would anticipate that will ramp up now as the temps drop.

Another dry week helped harvest progress roll on. Yield reports continue to come in quite variable. Quite a few operations have finished harvesting already. Manure tanks and draglines have commenced fall applications. Forecast for a wet week ahead has spurred on a lot of corn stalk baling.

Rain delay in the early part of the week slowed harvest progress a little bit. It appears quite a few growers finished up by the end of the week. Still looks like minimal fall tillage has been done yet. A lot of cornstalk bales will need to be made in the upcoming weeks in between wet spells.

A lot of the elevators have been limiting their hours due to being short on space, which has slowed progress on the last few acres that need to be taken out. It appears only a very small percentage of acres remain to be harvested. Threat of rain in the upcoming week has spurred on a lot of the corn stalk baling, so that also appears to be nearly completed. Fall tillage and fertilizer applications have a good start but will probably continue on until the ground freezes.

Not much change this week. Still a few scattered fields of corn to finish harvesting, but essentially done with corn harvest. Stalk bales getting made and gathered yet. Manure and fertilizer applications continue.

A crop that showed amazing potential through the first half of the season turned challenging after large areas received extensive wind damage from a derecho on July 28. That event ushered in a lot of disease pressure, especially southern rust. Standability was a concern for most of the region following the derecho. Consensus for much of the area seems to be a 10-20% yield reduction from the combination of wind damage, disease and late-season heat.