At the same time, Licht said having rainfall in Iowa had value in that the moisture provided “just a little bit of hope” for farmers who are feeling some angst and anxiety heading into a key developmental period when corn plants are initiating ears and filling in kernels until pollination hits in mid-July — factors that all could impact the 2021 crop’s yield potential. Soybean plants, he added, are better able to adjust and compensate for environmental stress.
“The next couple of weeks here — cool weather, more precipitation, that bodes well,” he said. “Any drought stress has the potential to lower our yield potential.”
A weekly crop report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture noted that farmers “reported corn curling and ground cracking in some areas.” The report found that Iowa’s corn condition rated 56 percent good to excellent, a drop of 7 percentage points since the week before. While the emergence of soybean plants is ahead of normal, the percentage of plants considered to be good to excellent declined, the report said.
Farmers, for the most part, are taking things “in stride” as they wait for their crops to develop and watch the sky, said Licht, who travels Iowa to monitor crop development. “They understand the situation and, unfortunately, in this situation there’s just nothing they can do about it,” he said. “There’s a little bit of anxiety about what the true yield impact is going to be and, unfortunately, I don’t have the answer on the yield impact right now. The true test will be in about four weeks from now.”
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Originally Appeared Here