Good signs for harvest

In a near reversal from last year, crop maturity is well ahead of schedule in Iowa and Nebraska with silage harvest under way and corn and soybean harvest expected to gain momentum by the end of September.

“The (corn) crop is quite a ways ahead than it was last year,” said Bob Kline, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension crop specialist based in North Platte. “Last year, the corn was really behind, and that really made the harvest late, and there were people who were harvesting corn in the spring.”

Al Dutcher, state climatologist, said the crop was so far behind last year that it got caught by freezing conditions in October, followed by a wet period that slowed harvesting.

Despite heavy rains this summer, he said, the south-central and southeast Nebraska corn crop is close to maturity. Dutcher said a good portion of the crop should be mature the first half of September and he wouldn’t be “shocked if producers begin to harvest corn around that time.”

“Overall, we have much better conditions this year than last year in regard to harvest weather,” Dutcher said.

“The only areas of concern are the northern, central Panhandle and northern Sand Hills, which were cool during the month of May, but they should get the corn to maturity if a widespread freeze doesn’t occur before the average mean freeze date, which is between Oct. 7 through 10.”

Dutcher said a strong La Niña is forecast, possibly one of the strongest in the past 50 years. The weather phenomenon — lower-than-normal Pacific Ocean temperatures — often means dry, hot weather for the region.

In recent La Niña events, he said, there was a fairly decent harvest period with above-normal temperatures and dryer conditions with intermediate periods of above-normal precipitation.

He said high pressure is expected to hold for seven to 10 days at a time this year, giving farmers a long stretch for natural drying.

This year it looks like there will be above-normal precipitation periods, but Dutcher said it doesn’t look like there will be long stretches of muddy field conditions.

“A rapid harvest, even with a lot of rainfall, should be here this fall,” Dutcher said. “Nothing points to an extended wet pattern.”

Crop forecasters in Iowa predicted a good crop, noting that farmers were already harvesting early planted fields, although forecasters rated both corn and soybeans lower in Iowa.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Statistical Service noted that corn is rapidly turning color and maturing while soybeans mostly remain green.

Last year, a cool August kept corn from drying properly. Heavy snows in October added to the problem. Most corn moisture percentages going into October were still in the upper 20s to low 30s. That pushed harvest into December.

The Agricultural Statistics Service reported this week that corn conditions in Nebraska were rated 2 percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 13 percent fair, 54 percent good and 27 percent excellent, above a year ago. Irrigated fields were 83 percent good or excellent, and dryland fields rated 79 percent.

In Iowa, a third of the corn crop had reached maturity. The Iowa crop was rated 3 percent very poor, 8 percent poor, 20 percent fair, 46 percent good and 23 percent excellent.

Soybean conditions in Nebraska were rated 2 percent very poor, 4 percent poor, 16 percent fair, 54 percent good and 24 percent excellent, near last year.

In Iowa, the soybean crop was rated 3 percent very poor, 7 percent poor, 21 percent fair, 47 percent good and 22 percent excellent.

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