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Central Iowa farmer grateful for good planting window

Recent warm weather has helped dry out fields for central Iowa farmers.

Lee Tesdell of Slater tells Brownfield planting progress kicked into another gear on Monday. “About half of my section got planted,” he said. “One neighbor put in about 150 acres of corn. Another neighbor put in about the same amount on the west half of our section.”

He says his soil temperatures have been around 60 degrees this week, and he attributes that to his conservation practices. “One thing we see with soil temperatures, no-till cover crop they are more stable,” Tesdell said. “And with tilled ground they vary more during the day.”

Tesdell is planting soybeans into corn stubble with a cereal rye cover crop.