Iowa’s Harvest: Catching Up After the Rain

 

Here in Sac County, we pay attention to the corn and soybean harvest even when we aren’t the ones driving the combines. The crops matter to our neighbors, our businesses, and the whole local economy.

This fall, rain has made that harvest a challenge. But farmers have recently made substantial progress.

The latest statewide report, covering conditions through Sunday, October 25, showed 47 percent of Iowa’s corn harvested and 78 percent of its soybeans harvested. Both crops advanced by 21 percentage points in a week. Corn remained behind the five-year average of 67 percent, while soybeans were closer to their average of 84 percent.

Those figures also explain something about newspaper headlines. A report published Monday or appearing in Tuesday’s paper may describe what was happening on Sunday. By the time we read it, farmers may have put in another full day or two.

Around my part of Sac County, the scattered rain yesterday did not seem heavy enough to cause much interruption. Some places may have received very little. That is my local impression, however, rather than an official county harvest estimate.

Conditions vary across Iowa. In September, Iowa State University agronomists reported wet fields interfering with harvest in northwest Iowa. They also raised concerns about weakened stalks and ear molds, which can make waiting to harvest a gamble.

One question on my mind is what it will cost to dry the corn.

Corn harvested with too much moisture needs drying for storage or delivery requirements. Iowa State estimates that a typical high-temperature dryer uses about 0.018 gallon of propane per bushel for each percentage point of moisture removed. At an illustrative propane price of $1.70 a gallon, drying corn from 20 percent moisture to 15 percent would cost about 15 cents per bushel in propane alone. For 100,000 bushels, that comes to roughly $15,300, before electricity and other expenses. Actual costs depend on the dryer, weather, fuel contract, and grain moisture.

Iowa’s surveyed residential propane price rose from about $1.63 to $1.70 a gallon between October 5 and October 19. Farm prices may differ. We should also be careful about attributing that increase to the Ukraine war without evidence connecting it to this particular price movement.

For now, farmers are making up ground. The statewide numbers show a strong week of work, and what I see locally gives me reason to be hopeful. A few more good harvesting days could make a considerable difference—for the corn still standing and for the people working to bring it home.