Iowa farmers had four days of suitable fieldwork this past week as temperatures dipped below normal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop report.

For this year’s harvest progress, 83% of the state’s corn has been harvested, three days behind the five-year average. Soybean harvest is 94% complete, three days behind last year, and four days behind the average. Farmers in the southwest have 36% of their corn for grain left to be harvested, and Mike Witt, agronomist with Guthrie County Extension, explains the slowdown for producers, “This last part of the harvest season tends to drag on just because as farmers get more and more advanced into the season they start having to do other things such as tillage, stalk balings and other types of things that would be pulling their time away from harvest of those remaining corn fields. So a lot of the higher priority fields have been taken out so now it’s just cleaning up whichever few are left out there.”

Activities for the past week included harvesting corn and soybeans, baling stalks, applying anhydrous and manure, repairing tile, and fall tillage in areas where the ground wasn’t too frozen. Topsoil moisture levels rated zero percent very short, one percent short, 80 percent adequate, and 19 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture levels rated zero percent very short, two percent short, 77 percent adequate, and 21 percent surplus.