OTTUMWA —
If there is any bright spot in this year’s drought, it’s that soybeans are not a total loss.
Mark Carlton, crops field specialist for ISU Extension in Monroe County, said more rain could obviously help the crops, but soybeans in particular.
Monday’s crop report showed 37 percent of soybeans in very poor to poor condition.
“Right now the bean pods are filling,” Carlton said. “Beans are a different critter than corn, since they’re continuing to flower and have the ability to produce more feed. And if it rains, we’ll get that production.”
Nearly half of the state’s corn crops are rated at very poor to poor condition.
“If there are no kernels on the ears, then there’s not much that’s going to help that out,” Carlton said. “On the other hand, a lot of corn with kernels on it, rain is going to help those kernels go ahead and fill out.”
According to the state map released by the U.S. Drought Monitor Thursday morning, D3, or extreme, droughtb now covers the majority of the state, with only portions of southern and northern Iowa in D2, or severe, drought.
“Everybody’s worried about it,” Carlton said. “ISU is going around and doing a series of drought meetings.”
With a cold front sweeping the state last weekend, Ottumwans felt some relief with temperatures dropping to the mid-80s, along with 0.25 inches of rain.
Temperatures picked back up to a high of 100 on Tuesday and then dropped to the mid-80s again on Wednesday, with just 0.10 inches collected on Tuesday and Wednesday.
August’s total rainfall so far is nearly an inch below normal for Ottumwa.
“A lot of farmers, if their corn is not going to yield well, are chopping it for livestock feed because pasture and hay are short,” Carlton said.
Monday’s crop report showed that 86 percent of pasture and range is in very poor to poor condition.
Looking ahead to the winter, Carlton said ISU Extension has been working with farmers to make sure they’re chopping their corn properly and preparing it for silage.
Most of a plant’s water comes from 5 feet deep, Carlton said, which means the area needs to see between 5 and 7 inches of rainfall.
“But not all at one time,” he said, “Then it would run off and fill the ponds up. We would like to have it all soak in nice and deep.”
The goal is to go into winter with a “full soil profile,” which freezes, thaws and reduces a lot of compaction and other issues farmers will face in the next planting season.
To have enough hay to get through the winter, farmers are baling their Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres, which was approved for haying and grazing a week ago.
“Hopefully everybody will have enough feed to get through the winter,” Carlton said. “Some of them, if they don’t, will have to sell livestock.”
Some cattle are already headed to market now because of a lack of forage.
“In the long-term it’s going to increase the price of food,” Carlton said. “Not only that, but we have the price of corn going up, and we are going to be short of corn this year. A lot of products you and I use during the day are made from corn.”
ISU Extension plans webinar
ISU Extension is holding a two-hour webinar at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 21, with time following for questions. Each county’s extension office will be hosting the webinar.
The webinar will discuss grain quality issues and marketing options related to the drought.
Local News
August 10, 2012
Corn continues to suffer, soybeans have a chance
Farmers preparing for difficulties to come this winter
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