Iowa farmers continue to push through this year's harvest, making progress we haven't seen in over a decade.
The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture crop report is also giving a better picture of how the summer drought has hurt corn and soybeans.
If the goal for famers in the state is to spend more time with family over the holidays, they're well on their way thanks to corn and soybeans drying out ahead of schedule and the recent stretch of beautiful weather.
This past week, farmers enjoyed all but one dry day to run combines.
Over half the soybean crops in Iowa (55%) have been harvested, only the second time in the past 15 years they've made such progress. The exception is south-central farmers: they're a little behind with 18% harvested.
The corn harvest is doing even better with a quarter of the crop out (25%).
You'd have to go back 20 years to see that kind of progress. It's also three weeks ahead of last year, 12 days ahead of the rolling average.
As far as what condition this drought-stressed crop looks like, it's significant.
Soybeans rated 49% good-to-excellent, better than some farmers were expecting but still down significantly compared to last year (65%).
In 2018, the quality of soybean crops was at 70%.
Corn is also struggling with 45% rated good-to-excellent. Last year, it was 65% and in 2018 it was at 70%.
So while the speed of the 2020 harvest can be celebrated, at this point, farmers appear focused on getting out of this year and looking to the future as soon as possible.
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