The USDA has released their 2022 Crop Review for Iowa on Tuesday. The USDA says that Iowa saw snow, rain and below average temperatures in April 2022, which delayed fieldwork and planting activities. The state did not see more than 2.8 days suitable for fieldwork until mid-May.
By May 15th, Iowa farmers had made significant progress planting field crops, although corn, soybeans and oats were all 1 week or more behind the 5 year average. Corn and soybean planting were virturally complete by June 5th at 98%, 3 days ahead of average and 94%, 6 days ahead of average, respectively.
For most stages, corn development be slightly behind average and then moved ahead of average through the season. Soybean development also spent most of the season behind the 5 year average, except for part of planting and harvest.
In October, for the first time since August 2013, Iowa experienced abnormally dry conditions across the entire state, with 35% of the state dealing with severe to extreme drought.
Iowa’s corn for grain harvest began during the week ending September 18th, with soybean harvest starting the following week. Soybean harvest was 74% complete by October 16th, 10 days ahead of average. More than half of the corn was harvested by October 23rd, reaching 59%. By the last week of November only scattered fields across the state remained to be harvested.
With harvest complete, farmers were busy with fall tillage, fertilizer or manure applications, hauling grain and starting to put machinery away for winter.