Crop Harvest Progress and Yields

At the first week of October crop harvest progress is moving right along. After this week there will be a lot of soybean acres completely harvested or very close to done. The weather has been more favorable for soybeans this week and put some moisture back into these soybeans. The 85 degree sunny and windy days made for quick drydown and there were soybeans being harvested at 9 percent moisture with the stalks still green and difficult to cut. This week seemed to have solved both those problems and soybean harvest is a lot more ideal at 12% moisture. Overall yield reports for 2021 have been positive. I’ve heard a lot of 60bu/ac soybeans on good fields and 50bu/ac on even some tougher fields. This was a pleasant surprise because overall it has been a dry year, but those late season rains really seemed to help out this year. The early soybeans are so far performing better than last year and it just goes to show you that the late rains really are the make or break for early soybeans in South Central Iowa.

Corn is drying down quickly as well. Just like last year it has not taken corn very long to get down to 16% moisture. It was important this year to get the early corn out of the field as soon as possible. Some of the early hybrids I have noticed have started to lose the tops out of them and are beginning to fall apart. The true “die and dry” hybrids are really showing up and need taken out of the field. I personally like harvesting 18-20% moisture on corn because of the reduced head shelling and improved harvestability. I know that you will have to pay some more to dry corn but if you put the pencil to it you can find more bushels at harvesting 18% corn and taking the dry down. Corn yields so far have been phenomenal where we avoided the tough weather. As we get into our southern territory where rains came harder, and hail was present some areas are struggling. Overall, we are going to have a very good corn year in our trade territory. Just about everyone I have talked to has talked about the improved corn yield this year. This is something to keep in mind as that high yielding corn takes a lot more nutrients. If you have 20% more yield you will remove 20% more nutrients. Don’t forget about that come this fall when it’s time to fertilize. Corn still has some time before it is finished but I bet overall our area is 25% done. The southern territory is getting into full swing, and I expect the next two weeks to be big push. I hope harvest is going well and you find more bushels than expected this year. As always if you need any help or guidance in the fields reach out to your SFG Agronomist and see what they are seeing in 2021.