Road Trip North and West

Weekend travels took us to Pella, Iowa for a family visit.  Some corn in Pike Co is in the V-8 to V-10 stage. On Friday, some corn in Pike County was starting to roll because of low humidity and high winds.  On the return trip, corn on the sandy soils had turned white.

Irrigation rigs were running in the Mississippi River bottoms as we traveled north. There were still a few planters in the field Friday.  Most of the soybeans in Iowa were V-1 to V-3.  It was interesting that almost no beans in Iowa were planted in 30 inch rows.

High winds, low humidity and high temperatures continued for our entire visit.  Corn in Iowa was V-3 to V-6 stage, so fortunately water requirements were lower than for some of the Illinois Corn.  In Iowa, people were already talking drought, although crops looked OK even as we traveled home Sunday.  To give and idea of the conditions though, I will comment that upper leaves on trees were wilted because they could not take up water fast enough.

Without regard to dry conditions, crops generally looked better in Iowa than they do in Illinois because soils were dryer for planting in Iowa.    

Rain in the forecast on Wednesday could help to rescue the corn from significant damage.