Hoping for just a few more timely rains is the name of the game as harvest season nears in Iowa. For some, it might already be too late, but for others it could be just enough for a strong finish to an unpredictable growing season.

“That’s the whole point this year, it’s been so spotty for rainfall,” said Angie Rieck-Hinz, ISU Extension field agronomist. “I can’t look at six fields within a two-mile area and see much consistency. It’s all just so spotty.”

She is not one to make predictions for harvest season, but is watching carefully to see how the drought monitor changes in the weeks ahead. She’s been walking both corn and soybean fields in early August and seeing some drought issues.

“In our dryer areas, it’s tough to close the row in some places,” Rieck-Hinz noted. “We still have iron deficiency showing up in some areas where it’s a little dryer.”

Despite the issues, overall, she remains fairly optimistic for farmers.

“There are a few diseases, but for the most part I would say the soybeans look pretty good,” she said.

Again, it’s a very spotty nature this growing season.

“I’ve seen a few leaf diseases out there, but nothing too serious,” she said. “There’s been some frogeye leaf spot, but it’s all in the lower canopy. It doesn’t look like it’s moving up, so I don’t see heavy disease pressure.”

Drought concerns are also coming into play for the corn crop in many areas. That was particularly evident walking a corn field south of Webster City recently.

“I was in those fields because they are really concerned about how dry it is,” she said. “They are clearly exhibiting drought symptoms; leaves are rolled up, they’ve got potassium deficiency firing, nitrogen deficiency firing.”

It’s not a lack of nutrients, she said, but the inability of the plant to make use of nutrients, and get those flowing through the plant, due to the lack of moisture.

“There’s going to be some diminished yields in those fields,” Rieck-Hinz said, “and it’s probably too late to help those out.”

Hamilton County isn’t alone. She noted similar conditions in Humboldt and Webster counties, and said it continues on with drought conditions to the west.

Jim Legbold farms primarily in Humboldt County and, while he has a few concerns, remains pretty confident for the harvest season ahead.

“I’m optimistic,” he said. “If we have some timely rains from here on out, we’ll have a pretty decent crop.”

Early August brought heavy rains across northern Iowa, little to no rain in some areas, but a beneficial amount to much of Legbold’s farm.

“We got a little moisture over the weekend (Aug. 5-7), which is great,” he said. “We picked up an inch to almost 2.5 inches over most of my farm, which was very helpful.”

Just a few days after the rain, Rieck-Heinz was out walking a soybean field with Legbold.

“We’re looking at the health of the soybean plant here, looking at the nodules and trying to figure out if some of the nodules are actually producing like they’re supposed to,” he said. “They’re green inside and we think it might have been a drought issue prior to this rain coming on.”

Input costs are

number one concern

While rain and plant health are always a concern, Legbold said input costs are really what weighs on his mind most of all in this inflationary year. Commodity prices, while better than some years, are not much comfort when the cost of inputs climbs as rapidly as it has this season.

“Everybody sees where the (commodity) prices are, and everybody responds accordingly, and that includes our suppliers,” Legbold said.

International concerns are another driving factor for the inflation that has hit farmers very hard.

“We’ve got other issues going on in the world that cause higher prices for some things,” he said. “We’re dependent on fertilizer coming from Russia, and that’s a problem right now. We’re dependent on herbicide coming from China, and that’s kind of a problem right now. We’re lacking in oil production; fuel prices are high. It’s just everything.”

Legbold would like to see some balance between commodity prices and input costs that would help farmers stay profitable and stay in business.

“In the long run,” he said, “I’d like to see maybe a little lower prices, and good yields, so we could average things out.”