Corn and soybeans are starting to show signs of needing precipitation.

Landus Cooperative Field Agronomist Zach Minnihan tells Raccoon Valley Radio corn has been tasseled, which means its done growing height-wise, while soybeans continue to develop. However, he says corn and soybeans are still okay because of the subsoil moisture levels due to the wet spring that happened.

“We’re kind of sucking up the last bit that were in our (soil) profile. To begin with, we started off the year pretty wet. But overall still, if you look at two year pattern, we’re pretty dry really overall. We’re definitely needing some moisture. It’s dying, it’s stressing here pretty hard. You can definitely see the sandy spots or lighter spots in the field, both for corn and soybeans.”   

Minnihan says another issue that happens this time of year and with drier conditions, are pests such as the Japanese Beetle and another insect.

“The biggest watchout probably in the next 20-30 days is spider mites. Warm, hot dry weather spider mites really like. They can be pretty detrimental to a pretty good looking corn field. They can take it down pretty quick.”   

According to the latest Crop Progress and Condition Report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture statewide, corn was rated 76-percent good to excellent, while soybeans were 73-percent.