Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Yields decent around Hartley area
A combine nibbles at the edge of cornfield south of Hartley in early October.
Blink twice and you might have missed it.
Thanks to dry conditions, the corn harvest in northwest Iowa blitzed to completion earlier this fall. According to Growmark FS agronomist Alic Mohni, most farmers were out of the fields by Halloween.
“I’ve never seen a harvest this fast,” he said.
Mohni received varying yield reports during the corn harvest ranging between 140-250 bushels per acre. Around Hartley, averages landed in the 200-220 bushels per acre range, with some numbers skewing slightly lower.
“It all really depended on if you got the rain,” said Mohni. “Farther south closer to Royal, numbers were lower. Around Hartley, we were fortunate to get some pretty good yields.”
Moisture levels in corn were very low, which reduced the need for drying. Mohni said farmers were hoping for significant precipitation heading into winter, as many fields are parched following another dry year.
“This rain [on Tuesday] was really nice to see,” he said.
According to the latest report from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, statewide topsoil moisture condition rated 17 percent very short, 37 percent short, 44 percent adequate and 2 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated 25 percent very short, 39 percent short, 36 percent adequate and 0 percent surplus.
