Running irrigators have been a common sight in corn fields in Iowa over the last few weeks as June, which is traditionally the wettest month of the year. Hot sunshine and lack of rain has stressed corn crops in several areas.
in many areas in Iowa corn is showing signs of being stressed from lack of moisture.
MUSCATINE — While the summer sun beating down on Iowa’s corn crops has taken a toll in several areas, University of Iowa Extension Field Agronomist Virgil Schmitt said Muscatine County has so far been spared the worst of it.
The latest Crop Progress and Condition Report from the United States Department of Agriculture states lack of precipitation and high heat had been leading to crop stress across the state. The report says corn emergence is nearly complete except for some replanted fields. Iowa’s corn condition is rated 63% good to excellent, 14 percentage points below the previous week. The drop in percentage points reflects the worsening drought conditions.
“It kind of depends where you are in the big picture,” Schmitt said. “In a lot of Iowa that is the case but that is not so much the case in Muscatine. We are starting to see some fields that are showing some signs. Typically we start thinking plants start going into heat stress at about 86 degrees, but the reality is if they have good soil moisture they don’t go into stress until about 92.”
He said the soils that had plenty of moisture have been doing fine. He commented that people don’t have to travel too far west or north to find drier soils and crops in stress. Schmitt said that on Tuesday he had done some work on his farm and on his uncle’s farm eight miles away. In that distance he saw increasing signs of crop stress.
Schmitt said despite the drought, the 2021 crops are coming along nicely. He said the growing season had started off with a cool May, but that the growth is now catching up.
“Some rain would be very, very helpful,” he said. “Obviously here my drainage tiles are still running, which means that there is plenty of moisture in the soil, but at the same time the grass on my farmstead is starting to go dormant, which says that there is not a lot of moisture near the surface. For the plants that have deep rooting, it is not much of an issue yet.”
Schmitt reported there haven’t been many problems with insects or diseases this year.
Right now the corn is at the stage it is determining how many rows around the ears of corn are going to be. Schmitt commented if corn is stressed it won’t produce as many rows per ear, which will hurt the yield. He said yield depends on how many rows around each ear and how long the rows are. The final numbers of both are usually determined as the plant tassles.
“We are approaching the time of year when corn really does need a lot of moisture,” he said. “if we had the ideal weather from here on out, we would get about an inch to an inch and a half of rain every week from here on.”
Schmitt commented that there is usually not a lot of rain in July and August. June Usually has the most precipitation during the year. He said soils being charged with moisture at the end of June can carry the crops through until harvest.
“That is the biggest concern right now,” Schmitt commented. “It is like July came about four weeks early in terms of cutting off the rain. The question now is are we going to have June, July and August like we normally have July and August, but much longer. That does not bode well for the fields that are showing stress now, because they don’t have enough moisture to finish out.”
June 19, 2021 at 07:52AM
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Corn in several areas of Iowa showing signs of lack of moisture - Quad City Times
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