Fall harvest well underway ...

Fields all across the state of Iowa have provided a view similar to the one above as the fall harvest season is well underway, including in Allamakee County. Despite this year’s unique weather impacts of the August 10 derecho that flattened corn fields in central and east central Iowa, along with varying degrees of drought across the state, Iowa agriculture officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) say this year’s harvest is well ahead of where it was last year at this time. They noted the corn harvest is over half completed (65%) in comparison to just 13% last year at this time, and also well above the five-year average of 29% completion at this point, according to information updated by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Monday, October 19.

While drought conditions have not been as troublesome in northeast Iowa, the dryer weather conditions as of late have obviously aided area farmers in being able to get into their fields on a consistent basis to bring this year’s harvest in at a much earlier pace than in recent years, the USDA also reporting that this year marks only the second time in the past 20 years that growers had harvested so much of their corn so early. The USDA also reports that even with its latest estimate of nearly 850,000 acres of corn that can not be harvested due to derecho damage in Iowa, the nearly 13 million acres of corn able to be harvested in the state will still lead the nation with an estimate of more than 2.4 billion bushes harvested this year.