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Iowa farmer’s corn crop is off to a good start
Planting into a cereal rye cover crop on the Mark Jackson farm near Rose Hill, Iowa. (Photo courtesy Mark Jackson)
Another planting season is in the books for Mark Jackson, who farms in southeast Iowa near the town of Rose Hill.
“We just finished up here the evening before last, ahead of the most recent rain that we had rolling through this area,” Jackson says. “We kind of consumed a 30-day window. We started on the 18th of April and essentially finished up here with our soybeans almost a month later.”
Jackson says most of his corn is out of the ground and looking good.
“I think uniformity if the key word,” he says. “As I drive around, not only my fields, but down the road—my neighbors and across the state—I’m seeing a tremendous amount of uniformity in the early emerging corn crop.”
Getting the crop up and established is the first hurdle, Jackson says.
“Obviously Mother Nature controls three-quarters of what we do. But if we can corner that little 25 percent part, we usually can have a fairly positive outcome if we have some timely rains.”
Jackson’s farm is located about an hour east of Des Moines.
AUDIO: Mark Jackson discusses his planting season and his experience with cover crops
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