A representative from Iowa State University Extension describes the improvement of crops with a break from the recent rains in the state.

Dallas County ISU Extension Field Agronomist Meaghan Anderson tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the crop production saw great progress over the last week as the state had a period of drier days. She reveals that this gave farmers time out in the fields to either finish or come close to completing planting season before the latest amount of rainfall. Anderson explains that most of the crop is underground but the recent precipitation brings its own challenges.

“Unfortunately, with that rainfall, a bit of crop that’s underneath water right now. So we’ll have to wait and see what comes of that in the next couple of weeks, but hopefully we can get some drier conditions to get that dried out and hopefully not have too many repercussions from all that excess moisture that we’ve been seeing.”

Anderson comments that the tornadic events throughout Iowa aren’t affecting crops too badly, but highlights that the water movement across the surface of the soils is problematic for the crops. According to the latest Crop Progress Report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture, about 78 percent of corn was planted across the state, which is eight days behind last year. About 61 percent of soybeans statewide have been planted, and that is about one week behind last year.