News

Early week planting progress for Iowa farmers

Several days of warm and dry weather are helping Iowa farmers make planting progress.

Josh Hitzhusen farms near Rockwell in the north-central part of the state and he spoke to Brownfield while planting corn Monday afternoon.

“Even compared to last year, we planted some right in the same timeframe and there wasn’t near as much soil moisture. We might’ve had more subsoil moisture down deeper, but as far as where we’re putting the seed itself, I don’t feel like we had near as much moisture last year.”

He says the furrows formed by the planter are more consistent.

“Before we were struggling (and) finding some shallow seeds because the seed furrow was collapsing as we were going through, so we were putting more pressure on the planter. So far I’ve been very happy with what I’ve seen this planting season.”

USDA’s latest weekly crop report shows corn planting in Iowa is four percent complete as of Sunday, but that number should increase considerably given the weather early this week.