Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report Released

 Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig commented on the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The report is released weekly April through November. Additionally, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship provides a weather summary each week during this time.

“Last week’s active weather pattern presented plenty of severe weather challenges across the state. Farmers certainly welcomed the moisture, but we could have gone without the wind, hail and tornadoes,” said Secretary Naig. “This week looks to be a bit quieter, and that will help farmers as they look to get the planters rolling.”

Crop Report

There were 2.7 days suitable for fieldwork during the week, 2.8 days less than last year. Topsoil moisture condition rated 2 percent very short, 8 percent short, 72 percent adequate and 18 percent surplus. Corn planting in Iowa reached 2 percent complete, which is 14 percentage points behind last year when 16 percent had been planted. Soybean planting reached 1 percent, which is 9 percentage points behind 2025 when 10 percent of the crop had been planted. Oats seeding reached 51 percent complete, 14 percentage points behind last year.

The weekly report is also available on the USDA’s website at https://www.nass.usda.gov/.

Weather Summary

Provided by Justin Glisan, Ph.D., State Climatologist, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship

Severe weather was the headline through the reporting period with several rounds of thunderstorms producing all modes of hazardous weather, including large hail, flash flooding and several tornadoes. This was also the third consecutive week of above-normal rainfall for much of Iowa. Temperatures were well above average with positive departures approaching 14 degrees from central to southeast Iowa; the statewide average temperature was 60.3 degrees, 11.4 degrees above normal.

Showers streamed across Iowa’s eastern half through Sunday (12^th) afternoon while sunny skies and gusty southerly winds held over northwestern Iowa. The first of four severe weather days occurred across northern Iowa on Monday (13^th) as a low pressure center transited the Iowa-Minnesota border. Afternoon temperatures pushed into the upper 70s in the presence of ample low-level moisture and wind shear. A few weak tornadoes developed later in the evening along with pockets of large hail and locally heavy rainfall; Ringsted (Emmet County) registered 0.97 inch while Lake Mills (Winnebago County) collected 1.42 inches.

The Forest City area has received 5.57 inches of precipitation and it averages 7.03 at this time during the year. This leaves the area 1.46 inches below normal. The statewide weekly average precipitation was 1.27 inches; the normal is 0.87 inch.

 Four-inch soil temperatures varied from the upper 40s north to mid 50s south as of Sunday.