I've been flying my little airplane around every few days lately, mostly staying within 20-40 miles of Iowa City. It is remarkable the change one sees in the last two weeks. Of course it varies by soil type and I assume variety, but the striking corn deterioation can't be denied.
How much loss there is I have no idea. My location has 0.05" rain in August, about 3 1/2 inches short of normal. The grass is dormant. Beans are still looking pretty good but one can see the subtle changes in shading that foretlll something not good.
Last year, the deep water reserves saved the crop or reduced damage in the face of dire predictions. It's my feeling that we don't have the deep water this year - we got water to tile level but no full recharge below that.
Two days ago, I dug a post hole about 10 feet from a creek bed that still had a little water. At 42" the dirt was dry enought that it wouldn't always stay in the jabbers (for those of you who know what that kind of post hole digger is). I was powder dry the top 12 inches and too dry at 42" to compress in the hand.
For quite a while in late July and early August,. the temperaturs were not too stressful, but in the last week and in next week's forecast temps are in the 90's.
It doesn't look good. I predict my yieldsd will be less than last year.for both corn and beans. Last year I had about an 85% yield on corn and the second best bean crop I've ever had. I'm willing to be that this eyar I have 75% on corn and am not sure what to guess on beans.
