By Rich Pope, Department of Entomology
The second week of May continued the 2008 pattern of cool and wet spring weather across Iowa. in spite of a band of locally heavy rain the evening of May 7 that brought over 6 inches of rain to Alden and neighboring areas, corn planting progressed slowly but steadily.
As of May 12, the USDA estimate for Iowa was that 46 percent of intended corn acreage was planted. Although that is only about one half of the five year average progress, it means more than 25 percent was planted in the week, with favorable (read that as dry—for now) weather forecast for the next 10 days.
A few soybean fields were planted, with posted statewide estimates of 4 percent of soy acres planted.
Rich Pope is an extension program specialist working in the Corn and Soybean Initiative
Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Integrated Crop Management News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on May 13, 2008. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.