The harvest season in the Sanborn area is drawing to a close. Last month’s hard freeze brought an end to the growing season.
“Harvest is going well,” reported Ben Van Beek, agronomist at Farmers Coop Society’s Sanborn location. “Beans are done and corn is wrapping up.” He reported soybean yields in the 60-75 bushels per acre range with some better and some worse. “Bean yields were good,” said Van Beek. “There were some white mold issues that growers faced in their soybeans. If a grower had this, it pulled their yield back some.”
Van Beek has seen corn yields in the 210-260 range. “Corn has been very good, too,” he said. “The corn was dry, too.”
The mid-October rainfall kept many out of the fields. “The struggle this year has been the weather,” acknowledged Van Beek. “The rains have been nice to replenish our soils, but the timing was a little difficult.”
The Iowa Crop Progress and Condition report released November 6 showed that 99 percent of the soybeans in northwest Iowa have been harvested. That same report for northwest Iowa indicated that the progress of corn harvested for grain was at 91 percent. The report showed topsoil moisture as 71 percent adequate and subsoil moisture as 49 percent adequate and 41 percent short.