Over abundance of rain is making a bigger time crunch for Iowa farmers.

ISU Extension Field Agronomist for Greene County Mark Licht says that corn is in better shape than soybeans across West Central Iowa and Greene County with 85-90% of corn seed planted, but soybeans are at 50%.  This time last year, Licht says soybeans will completed planted by the middle of May.

Licht states that soybean producers might have to plant deeper into the soil so that the seed isn’t affected by too much rainfall and he offers advice on what to do about possibly switching seed varieties.

“You know in some cases we’re going to be better off to stay with those adapted full season soybean varieties until even the 30th of June and be alright yet.  But again, we may have a little bit of frost risk on those but they’re still going to yield better for us and we’re typically going to have better genetics if we stick with adapted full season type variety.”

In 1946 and ‘47, Licht points out that Iowa went through the same weather pattern with drought conditions in 1946, then in April-May 1947, flooding occurred and by June, it went back to being very hot and dry.

He says crop producers must always exercise patience when it comes to how they manage their fields with changing weather conditions.