Below average rainfall and mild temperatures in the last week allowed Iowa farmers 5.1 days suitable for fieldwork, according to the latest Crop Progress Report from the Department of Agriculture. Field activities included harvesting oats for grain, cutting and baling hay, and applying fungicides. 

Topsoil moisture condition rated zero percent very short, six percent short, 84 percent adequate, and 10 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated one percent very short, eight percent short, 82 percent adequate, and nine percent surplus. Corn silking or beyond reached 44 percent one day ahead of last year and three days ahead of the five-year average. Corn in the dough stage was at six percent, five days ahead of the average. 

Corn condition rated 74 percent good to excellent. Soybeans blooming reached 50 percent, three days behind last year. Soybeans setting pods reached 12 percent, one day behind last year but equal to the five-year average. Soybean condition rated 72 percent good to excellent. Oats turning color reached 82 percent, five days ahead of the average. Oat harvest for grain jumped to 26 percent complete, one week ahead of the average. Oat condition was 77 percent good to excellent. 

Iowa’s second cutting of alfalfa hay reached 57 percent complete, five days behind last year but two days ahead of the average. Hay condition rated 78 percent good to excellent. Pasture condition rated 71 percent good to excellent. Some pastures remain flooded and where floodwaters have receded, some pastures are covered in silt.