Heat expected to help Iowa crops
July 14th, 2015 by Ric Hanson
The latest U-S-D-A crop report released Monday shows 82 percent of the corn crop is in good to excellent condition and 78 percent of the soybeans are rated the same way. Iowa State University Extension Agronomist, Brian Lang, monitors six counties in the northeast-tip of the state from Decorah to Dubuque.
“You could almost say, they’ve never looked better. We’re having a very good year up here so far. No particular insect pests. No particular diseases of any serious nature at this time,” Lang says. He could only find a slight lack of heat as a negative. “We’re only arguably about two days behind on growing degree days, and I think we’ll pick that up this week. We’re going to have a pretty hot week it looks like, actually probably catch up right up to normal,” according to Lang. “Rainfall has been running just a little bit ahead of normal.”
While most of the state’s crops are in good shape, there are still some spots where heavy rains in June caused some damage.
(Radio Iowa)