Producers Blog
Iowa 2014 Year in Review
Jeff Morey
(Sales Agronomist, Region 5 – Iowa)
The 2014 harvest season in Iowa is finally getting wrapped up. According to the USDA as of the 23rd of November, Iowa’s corn harvest was 96% complete and soybean harvest was 99% complete. Since the 10th of November, most of western Iowa has had more days with highs below freezing than above freezing. This brought most tillage and NH3 applications to an end. There was also a widespread snowfall event that slowed the harvest of those final few acres still standing in the field.
With a much cooler than normal growing season, as well as a cool wet planting season, harvest was about 10-14 days behind the average. However, our cool growing season didn’t seem to have much of an effect on soybean yields. Unless you were too dry, received a heavy rain event or hail, the soybean yields were some of the best that many had seen in years. There were also many acres of soybeans that were planted into fields that had been corn-on-corn for years and those fields yielded well above most growers’ averages. In some cases there were reports of whole field averages over 70 bushels/acre. This was also the first year in a long time that many growers were able to harvest 11-13% moisture soybeans.
The corn harvest was also delayed by the cool weather as many were waiting to see if we would get any additional field drying. And for the most part we did, despite the fact that we had higher moistures at the start of corn harvest. Unlike the soybeans, unless you were too dry, received a heavy rain event, hail, or wind, the corn yields were only near or slightly above average. While there were some whole field averages above 200 bushels/acre, most growers will tell you they were disappointed in their corn yields. After the soybean yields we saw, most growers were expecting higher corn yields, but were still happy with most of their corn yields.
Before making your decision on which variety or hybrid to plant next year, take the time to look at plot results. Don’t just look at one or two plots, but view as many as possible to look for possible trends. If you find a variety or hybrid that you like, review multiple plots to see if it consistently shows up near the top. However, don’t just plant that one variety or hybrid. I would suggest planting at least 3-4 different products to spread out your risk and provide genetic diversity to your farm. Plant about 60% of your acres to the maturity group best suited for your area and the remaining acres should have about 20% on the earlier side and 20% on the later side for you region. All of these things will help you spread your risk as well as increase your potential for another great harvest.
