Some Iowa farmers are already planting their 2024 crops

CLARION — The weather is warming and the tractors are chugging away as Iowa farmers are starting the planting season.

Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Angie Rieck Hinz says she’s seen plenty of activity this past week in the northern part of the state. “We still have anhydrous going on, we still have some dry fertilizer applications,” Reick Hinz says. “There’s a lot of spring tillage going on, and there’s even people planting, so I think we’re running the whole gamut right now of spring field operations.”

Much of the state saw high temperatures this weekend in the 70s and 80s. That’s some 20 degrees warmer than normal. “It looks like, over the course of at least the next week or so, we have some scattered chances of some showers,” she says. “I don’t think anybody’s going to turn away the rain. We are still dry. We’re still experiencing some drought conditions, and it’s going to take a long time for that to actually go away.”

The new map released Thursday by the Iowa Drought Monitor shows slight improvements in all categories, though there’s still a big splotch of red in northeast and east-central Iowa — as 32% of the state remains under severe or extreme drought. Rieck Hinz says, as always, rain will be key in the success of this next crop.  “We need to have water in that soil profile, and our upper six inches to 12 inches has some decent moisture right now, but you get below about that top foot, it gets fairly dry,” she says. “As our crops grow and roots go down, they’re going to be looking for that water. We’re going to need some timely rains throughout this growing season.”

The forecast calls for rain late today through Wednesday.