The Iowa harvest is coming along well ahead of schedule according to the latest USDA numbers – 56% of corn harvested compared to 8% average for this time of year and soybeans are 54% harvested compared to 21% average. The condition of the crops is not as bad as some of the Corn Belt states, although nearly half the corn is rated poor to very poor, beans are doing better with nearly 70% rated at least fair.

I caught up with BASF Great Grower Steve Miller in the middle of his harvest to see how the season has been for him and he is pretty happy with the yields he has seen so far, considering the weather. He finished harvesting his soybean fields Sunday night. “We average 64 on our further west farms and 58 the further west we went,” Steve told me. “Corn, on the other hand, we go from zero to 230 in the same field and the corn on corn is worse than the corn in bean stubble.” With his corn harvest about one third complete, Steve says his yields are actually exceeding his expectations given the fact that they had virtually no rain from June until the end of August.

The weather impacted Steve’s weed control, which was difficult for soybeans, since they do have some glyphosate resistance. “We got some waterhemp that just laughed at us when we sprayed, dandelions, giant ragweed,” he said. “We were spraying 44 ounces of Roundup and it didn’t seem to do much.”

Steve did use Headline fungicide for plant health this year. “When we sprayed, beans were $16 and it wouldn’t take much to make up for the product, so we thought that was a good decision.”

Listen to or download my interview with Steve here: BASF Great Grower Steve Miller