DES MOINES — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey commented on the Iowa Crops and Weather report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service. The report is released weekly from April through October.
“The dry weather remains a concern as 65 percent of the topsoil and 59 percent of subsoil moisture is short or very short,” Northey said.
“While the cool dry weather was ideal for the state fair, crops need additional precipitation and warm weather as development remains well behind the five-year average.”
Drier and cooler than average weather persisted across most of Iowa during the week ending Aug. 18, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service.
A total of 35 percent of topsoil and 41 percent of subsoil was in the adequate and surplus moisture categories, both declining 6 percentage points from last week. Topsoil moisture levels rated 25 percent very short, 40 percent short, 34 percent adequate and 1 percent surplus.
Twenty-four percent of the crop has reached the dough stage, well behind the normal 60 percent. Some of the very earliest planted corn crop has reached the dent stage.
Hay condition was rated at 5 percent very poor, 13 percent poor, 36 percent fair, 40 percent good and 6 percent excellent.