I-80 Harvest Tour: Even with Heat and Drought Yields Not That Far Below 2022 in Many Areas of Iowa

Harvest is well ahead of normal in Iowa with 62% of the corn out of the field.  That’s well ahead of the 47% five-year average.  Soybean harvest stands at 83% done, which is 16 points ahead of normal. 

From field to field and even within fields this year’s harvest results are variable in Iowa, in part due to drought, which has covered over 90-percent of the state since late May.  Yet yields are not off dramatically from 2022.

Larry Jacobsen’s farm in central Iowa, near Maxwell, only ran six to eight inches below normal for moisture.  But he says the early season flash drought shaved yield potential.  "I think it probably did some we went from a wet spring to a dry spell."

But he also points to the late season heat stress as a yield robber. He says, "That heat we got in August I believe that it hurt our beans somewhat in yield. And I'm sure it's cut back on our corn yield so it's as hot as it was or heat index. And temperature wise for about six days there. It was. It was miserable."

So, he says corn yields are running below 2022.  "Corn wise we're in that probably 220 to 230 bushel range."

The heat also pushed the crop during filling and so test weights on corn are lighter.  "We’re in that 56 to 57.  Everything we hauled out last year was over 60 pounds."

But surprisingly that early push to maturity hasn’t cannibalized the plant.  "Our stalk integrity is great.  We haven't seen any ear drops. We don't have any corn that is not standing it's all standing very well for us."

While grain moisture levels fell with the late season heat and dryness, he says they’re still having to dry some corn. "It's running about 17% to 18% right now. We weren't doing corn before the rain. That was about 15.5 to 16.5 so it's picked up a little moisture with the rainfall we got."

The soybean harvest is done at Jacobson’s farm, and he says that crop also ran below their farm averages.  "Beans were in that 60-to-65-bushel range.  The last couple years we've been about five to seven bushels better."

USDA has Iowa corn yields pegged at 199 bushels per acre just a bushel under 2022, with soybeans only a half bushel lower at 58.  Jacobson thinks that’s about right, even with the severe drought in eastern Iowa.     

"This year I think it's going to be similar to years past that. There's going to be areas that have been hit hard. I mean they're still drought we've got what they consider our area a light drought and there's still areas that are as extreme drought. It just depends on where you're at. And how the how the weather affected you."

Jacobson says with less bushels at his farm and lower prices verses a year ago he’s seeing declining margins.  "I think it's going to be down this year. I mean, corn prices have dropped, we're back down, and then $5 range or just a little under, whereas in the last year we were between six and seven. Profitability is going to be lower."

And looking ahead to next year he says that trend may continue depending on where input prices fall out.