Planting underway across Iowa, some farms impacted by storms last week
Spring planting is underway in Iowa. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Corn Growers Association)
Iowa farmers made headway planting corn, soybeans and oats early last week, but were slowed by storms that caused destruction in southwest Iowa, according to the Iowa crop progress and condition report.
The report, covering April 14 through April 20, shows Iowa has 68% of oats planted, 18% of corn and 11% of soybeans. Planting rates for all three of these crops are ahead of the five-year average.
Topsoil and subsoil moisture conditions improved slightly from the week prior, though both have more than 60% rated as adequate moisture. Soil moisture conditions are slightly better than last year at this time.
Soil temperatures measured at a depth of four inches show the ground has warmed up, with most counties measuring in the upper 40s to low 50s. Other field activities for the period included tiling, building waterways and spraying.
Iowa crop progress and condition reports are released weekly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service during planting season and through harvest season.
Average precipitation for April 14-20 was 0.35 inches across the state, though several areas measured more than an inch and up to nearly 2.5 inches following thunderstorms April 17.
Some counties observed hail as large as 4 inches during the storms and two tornadoes touched down, one in Fremont County near Tabor, and the other moved across Fremont and Page counties.
According to State Climatologist Justin Glisan, hail and wind damage was reported in Sioux City, Storm Lake and Waverly, in addition to the counties that saw tornadoes.
Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation, in response to the severe weather, for Buena Vista, Fremont, Page, and Plymouth counties. The proclamation opens up state resources to respond to the damages and gives eligible Iowans 45 days to apply for the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program to help with associated repairs and other costs.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visited some of areas hit by the storms.
'I visited southwest Iowa over the weekend, where I saw firsthand some of the damage caused by the tornadoes and large hail,' Naig said in a statement. 'My heart goes out to all the Iowans who were impacted by these storms.'
Precipitation predictions for the coming week suggest Iowa will have above average rainfall across most of the state, which Naig said might slow spring planting progress as it did the week prior.
'While more delays may occur, the rain will help replenish soil moisture, which would be a welcome development in many areas,' Naig said.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
How long can food last in power outage? What to know as crews make repairs in Bucks County
Thousands of Bucks County residents were still without power Friday morning following severe thunderstorms the day prior. As many continue to wait for their power to be restored, some may be wondering if their power was already out for too long — and if the food in their refrigerator is still safe to eat. When in doubt, experts advise it's safer to throw out any questionable food items. They also advise against tasting food to determine if the food is OK. When the refrigerator door is left shut and power was only out for a few hours, chances are that the food is alright. A refrigerator should keep food cold for six hours and a half-full freezer for 24 hours (48 hours if the freezer is full) if you don't open the doors, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Here are some tips: Try not to open the refrigerator and freezer doors (doing so lets the cold air escape). If you know the power will be out for an extended period, pick up ice or dry ice to keep foods cold. Fifty pounds of dry ice, the U.S. ood and Drug Administration said, should hold an 18-cubic-foot freezer for two days. Take care when handling dry ice; don't handle it with bare hands or place it directly on foods. Use a refrigerator-freezer thermometer to check the temperature. In either the refrigerator or freezer, if the temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, the food is safe. Check the packages. If food still contains ice crystals or is at 40 degrees or below when checked with a food thermometer, you can refreeze it, but the quality may not be the same. Group foods together in the freezer to help them stay cold longer. Keep food on ice in coolers. Bacteria growth can take place in these foods that have been above 40 degrees for two hours or more. Discard the following if your refrigerator has been without power for more than four hours: Raw, cooked or leftover meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, yogurt, eggs, leftovers, hot dogs, bacon, lunch meats, pizza, shredded cheeses, casseroles, pasta and pasta sauces, cut fruits and vegetables. Cream-based salad dressings, sauces and soups. Opened mayonnaise, tartar sauce and horseradish if they were held above 50 degrees for more than eight hours. Discard any foods like bread or salad greens that may have become contaminated by juices dripping from raw meat, poultry or fish. Pasta salads. Sour cream-based or any dairy-based dips. Fruits and vegetables that have become slimy or spoiled. The following foods might be OK even after a prolonged power outage: Condiments such as ketchup, mustard, jelly, jams, soy sauce and bottled marinade. Typically, these have high salt and sugar content that can act as a preservative. Keep in mind that jams and jellies can grow mold after three or four days. Toss out ones that show signs of mold. Butter/margarine. Hard and processed cheese are typically OK. Foods that don't actually require refrigeration such as fresh herbs, spices, flour and nuts. Fresh bread and rolls. Whole fruits and vegetables that show no signs of decay. Once the power is restored, here's how to care for the inside of your refrigerator or freezer and rid them of any odors. Dispose of any spoiled or questionable food. Remove shelves, crispers, and ice trays. Wash them thoroughly with hot water and detergent. Then rinse with a sanitizing solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of drinking water. Wash the interior of the refrigerator and freezer, including the door and gaskets, with hot water and baking soda. Rinse with a sanitizing solution. Leave the door open for about 15 minutes. The following steps can be taken to eliminate smells from your fridge: Wipe the inside of the unit with equal parts of vinegar and water to destroy mildew. Leave the door open and allow it to air out for several days. Stuff the refrigerator and freezer with rolled newspapers. Keep the door closed for several days. Remove the newspaper and clean with vinegar and water. Sprinkle fresh coffee grounds or baking soda loosely in a large, shallow container in the bottom of the unit. Use a commercial product available at hardware and houseware stores. Follow the manufacturer's instructions. The USDA's Meat and Poultry hotline, 888-674-6854, is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays. Lacey Latch is the development reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. She can be reached at LLatch@ USA TODAY reporters Michelle Ganassi, Dustin Barnes and Susan Selasky contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: How long can food last in a power outage? What to know in Bucks County
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
'Amber waves of grain' recede in America's heartland as wheat farmers struggle
By Emily Schmall COLBY, Kansas (Reuters) -On a foggy morning in May, Dennis Schoenhals drove a carload of crop scouts around the wheat fields of northern Oklahoma, part of an annual tour to evaluate the health of the crop. But on some fields, Schoenhals and other farmers had already abandoned plans to harvest the grain for sale because prices had sunk to five-year lows. Farmers cut their losses early this year across the U.S. wheat belt, stretching from Texas to Montana. They were choosing to bale the wheat into hay, plow their fields under or turn them over to animals to graze. In Nebraska, wheat acreage is less than half of what it was in 2005. For farmers with crop insurance, damaged or unprofitable wheat fields can still earn revenue. But many agree that chasing insurance payouts is not the best business model. The Great Plains have long been celebrated for the "amber waves of grain" in the popular hymn "America the Beautiful." The region's states produce most of the U.S.-grown crop of hard red winter wheat, favored by bakers for bread. But with prices hovering around $5 per bushel, U.S. wheat farmers have reached an inflection point, with many forced to either lose money, feed wheat to cattle or kill off the crop. Interviews with more than a dozen farmers and analysts across Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, along with a review of U.S. Department of Agriculture data, revealed a vast disparity in profit for wheat compared to other crops. This has led farmers to abandon more fields before harvest. In parts of the region, prolonged drought has lowered yields in recent years. Farm revenue has also suffered in years with healthy rainfall, as abundant global supplies have weighed on prices. Many have pivoted to corn, soy or livestock, often after generations of their family growing wheat exclusively. "They can't sustain that," said Schoenhals, 68, who raises crops and cattle near Kremlin, Oklahoma, and is president of the state's wheat growers association. "Eventually you either change to other crops if you're able to, or you go out of business," he said. Two years ago, severe drought drove farmers to abandon about a third of the U.S. crop. This year, healthy green stalks shot through the cracked soil, and farmers had expected to harvest the most bushels per acre since 2016. But wheat prices hit a five-year low in May. Every year since 2020, farmers have abandoned between a fifth and a third of the winter wheat crop, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Nationwide, corn and soybeans dominate crop fields, with wheat a distant third in planted acreage. Hard red winter wheat exports hit historic lows in 2024 after drought and lower prices in other wheat-producing areas of the world squeezed the U.S. commodity's competitiveness. In Kansas, the leading U.S. producer of hard winter wheat, the disparity between acreage and value is particularly stark. About 1.3 million more farm acres in Kansas were planted with wheat than with corn in 2024, USDA data show, but corn's value of production was more than twice as high. Plentiful global supplies have kept benchmark U.S. prices stuck at lows that discourage farmers from growing wheat, producers and analysts told Reuters. Supplies are so ample that droughts in important grain-growing regions of China and Russia this year have barely budged prices. 'We're below profitable levels for these guys,' said Darin Fessler, an analyst with Lakefront Futures in Lincoln, Nebraska, who grew up on a row crop farm in nearby Sutton. The way things stand, he said, many farmers have "eaten a lot of their own money and burned up working capital. These bankers are going to say: 'show me some profits or we're going to have some farm sales.'" HERITAGE BUT NO PROFIT Ties to wheat farming run deep in the Plains. Historically, European settlers in Kansas struggled to find a foothold until Mennonites from Ukraine arrived with seeds of Turkey Red wheat, a variety that proved able to withstand the area's dry soil, harsh winters and extreme temperature swings. The seeds spread to neighboring Oklahoma and Nebraska, where pioneers established homesteads in the sandy, light earth in which wheat thrived but other crops struggled. Hard red winter wheat has remained the main variety of wheat sown in the U.S. Images of golden stalks adorn hotel lobbies and road signs, and towns include the word in their names. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather, a daughter of Red Cloud, Nebraska, wrote a celebrated poem describing "the miles of fresh-plowed soil, heavy and black, full of strength and harshness." Now, U.S. wheat growing is on a steady decline, with farmers finding surer profits from corn, soybeans or cattle. On the wheat quality tour in May, weeks before Nebraska wheat is usually harvested, no wheat could be seen for miles around Red Cloud. When Royce Schaneman joined Nebraska's wheat board 19 years ago, wheat fields stretched for 2.2 million acres across the state. Since then, acreage has shrunk to less than a million acres, he said. In Cheyenne County in southern Nebraska, the state's most productive wheat-growing land, about one in five fields was abandoned this year. "The feeling out in the country is not good," he said. Generations of farmers grew wheat because the crop thrived on rainfall alone. In recent decades, farmers have invested in pricey irrigation systems, experimented with hardier varieties and used fertilizer to improve yields. Agronomists have helped farmers grow more bushels per acre even as climate change has brought more drought and pests. Producers in the southern Plains have experimented with other types of wheat such as durum, the kind used for pasta, and a gluten-free variety, pursuing customers willing to pay more. Profits remain elusive. 'It's heritage, but there's no profit," said Lon Frahm, the CEO of Frahm Farmland, a 40,000-acre operation in Colby, Kansas. Surrounding Thomas County is now dotted with wind farms. Farmers there once grew wheat exclusively, he said, but they have started to diversify due to more frequent drought and global competition depressing prices. Frahm himself now mainly plants corn. He irrigates, fertilizes and harvests the grain using multimillion-dollar machines, then stores it in gleaming, 80-foot steel grain bins. His 7,000 acres of wheat sometimes produce just 5 percent of his farm's total output. "There's certainly profit in corn," he said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Iowa DNR shares river safety tips
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has important safety tips for Iowans looking to spend time on Iowa's waterways. Todd Robertson, a river programs water trails coordinator for the Iowa DNR, said that the number one thing Iowans need when on the river is a life jacket. 'It goes down to the very basic number one, which is wearing the life jacket, the life jacket's made for a reason. It does a certain thing for you, and that is it keeps your head above water. It keeps you buoyant, because if you dump your boat in a river with all the current and you don't have your life jacket on, it is so easy to get pulled down underneath the water,' Robertson said. Republican Senators who forced pipeline vote say fight for landowner rights is not over The DNR also recommends that Iowans avoid going on the river after heavy rain. 'You just can't go start paddling on a river the day after a super heavy rain. And the reason for that is because all the debris washes in from the banks and you get wood piled on top of wood. And we call those strainers and those are really deadly,' Robertson said. Robertson said that strainers can flip boats and trap paddlers. 'So you just have a big mess of wood. The only problem with that is it's like a spaghetti strainer. The water is going through the strainer and it's sucking the water through. But if you get your boat and your body up against that, you can slip and you can actually get sucked underneath that. And if that happens, that's real bad news,' Robertson said. To learn more about river safety, visit the Iowa DNR's website. Iowa News: Iowa DNR shares river safety tips Republican Senators who forced pipeline vote say fight for landowner rights is not over Body of missing fisherman recovered from Three Mile Lake in Union County WHO 13 Farm Report: Wednesday, June 18th Small town, big heart, big canvas: Iowa community to unveil new mural Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
