The latest U-S-D-A crop report says farmers harvested one-tenth of the state’s corn crop during the week that ended Sunday. The report says cold temperatures and snow halted most other ag activities during the week. Ninety-two percent of Iowa’s corn acreage was harvested which matched 2013 and is two days ahead of the five-year average. It’s the first time this season that corn harvest was ahead of the normal pace. The cold weather was welcome by some, including Brad Sorenson, who farms 24-hundred acres near Harlan.

“We got done Friday. Had to wait ‘til the ground froze so we could finish up,” Sorenson says. The rain-soaked fields had kept Sorenson and others from making progress. “Ground was so saturated that the ground had to freeze to carry the weight of the combine and the grain cart so we could get the last fields done,” Sorenson explains. “It was somewhat of a struggle this year.” Although the weather was wet, Sorenson says things eventually turned out pretty well when it came to the harvest.

“In early October, they we were afraid we’d have to spend 20 to 25 cents a bushel to dry it. And, the weather went in our favor and it dried in the field for us, and we saved a lot of money doing that,” according to Sorenson. Only about ten-percent or less of Iowa’s corn crop remains in the fields. South-central Iowa continued to trail behind the rest of the state with only 79-percent of the corn harvest complete. The soybean harvest was nearing completion with 98-percent of the acreage harvested.

(Radio Iowa)