06-05-2025
Many farmers nearly done with planting; agronomists release soil moisture survey
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – It's that time of year again for farmers to hit the fields, and according to local experts, this planting season is starting off great thanks to early precipitation.
It's a beautiful day today and farmers are taking full advantage of it. One producer even says he's nearly finished with planting already.
'Well, planting season got off to an early start this year with the favorable conditions, good warm weather with ample moisture up to the start,' said Randy Kroksh, an Akron farmer.
'So every fall and spring, we pull subsoil moisture tests and this spring, we really fell right into the average,' said Leah Ten Napel, a field agronomist with Iowa State Extension and Outreach Program.
Morningside University receives $1.5M for track and field renovation
From mid-November 2024 to April 14, 2025, northwest Iowa received around five to eight inches of precipitation, which is a good start for farmers.
'We need between 20 to 25 inches of moisture for our crops to grow, so if you know, our starting point, we keep track of how much we receive in the meantime, growers are just able to have a good idea of how their crop might turn out based on the amount of moisture we're starting out with,' said Ten Napel.
Due to the soil moisture as well as the warmer temperatures, farmers were already out in these fields by mid-April.
'These warmer conditions right now have just been ideal to get the crops in and to get them out of the ground much faster. Quite a bit of corn is up around in this area east of Akron, west of Le Mars, and I even see some bean fields that are coming up to,' said Kroksh.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, portions of northwest Iowa are either abnormally dry or in moderate drought, and farmers are going need a bit more precipitation for a good harvest.
'Ideally, we'd have a good amount of rain spread throughout the growing season, so the crops aren't ever stressed out because that's when we start to see the yield potential go down. And so if we just had a steady feed of rain, we'd see some beautiful crops come out of it,' said Ten Napel.
Payment processing outage scheduled Tuesday in South Sioux City
'We just have to pray to the Lord up there and hopefully gives us ample moisture and at this point in time, I mean, we're okay, but we definitely are could use some moisture. As a farmer, you have to be optimistic, all the time, you just have to. You just have to pray that you're going to get enough rain and you're going to have a good crop and survive another year,' said Kroksh.
Drivers are asked to take it slow driving up hills as to avoid getting into an accident with farmers.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
